Flipside of art

Labrador West Visual Arts Association members are featuring work that's out of the ordinary in an exhibition at Labrador West Arts and Culture Centre running this summer.

"This year we have challenged ourselves to do different types of art," said Marjorie O'Brien, visual arts group leader. "Some are along the lines of abstraction, some realism, and some silk paintings, [done] just for a change and to introduce new artwork to the community."

She admitted that silk paintings are particularly difficult because artists have make sure the dye soaks into a piece of silk, stretched over a frame, without letting the colour bleed into other areas of the painting.

That's why it's more convenient to paint upon simple themes, she added, like nudes or flowers.

She said the group also enjoyed doing wonky paintings where a photographed still life was transferred onto canvas by using a warped grid system.

Marie-Josee Bois-O'Neill took it to the next level with her nudes depicted on both silk and canvas.

She said she got inspiration from Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles, so she depicted nude women in movement that she hopes make the viewer want to move with them.

Draping neutral naked bodies with colourful flowing fabrics, she said she was looking to create a lot of contrast.

"I like painting and using a lot of colours." she expressed. "I like something to stand out and be vivid. The body is a beautiful thing and we shouldn't be shy of it. "

The exhibition also contains realistic paintings, but with a different twist, because they try to capture a specific moment and evoke a certain mood.

One of O'Brien's acrylic paintings called Poppy's Roots depicts a scene from Newfoundland, where a grandfather takes his grandson to the place he grew up.

An abandoned boat and house stand in the background, which, she said, represents a disappearing way of life with the fishing industry scrapped and creates a mood of days gone by.

Mary Jacobs, another member of the visual arts group, painted upon a similar theme in her work called Passing on Tradition, depicting a grandfather teaching a child how to put up a net.

She said that the most difficult part of the painting was to give the net life and more of a three-dimensional quality.

Cheryl Hardy, introduced elements of impressionism in her painting Sea-glass Pickers, trying to capture a fleeting moment in life of family looking for sea glass on a beach.

The people in the painting are not depicted traditionally facing the viewer, which Hardy said was done intentionally because she liked the composition of the scene as it was.

She also hoped the spatial emptiness of the endless beach and sea gives the viewer a sense of spirituality.

"I think it shows how prolific our group can be," said O'Brien of the group's artwork. "It shows how they enjoy a challenge and I think they're all great artists in their own right."

The artists featured in the exhibition include: Marjorie O'Brien, Cheryl Hardy, Marie-Josee Bois-O'Neill, Ed Owen, Mary Jacobs, Irene Rice, and Glen Green.