Events
High Arctic Light: paintings and book works
October 28 – November 15, 2020
Wednesday through Sunday 1:00 – 5:30 pm
Propeller Art Gallery
30 Abell Street, Toronto, ON
416-504-7142
www.propellerartgallery.ca
Due to the pandemic we will be holding a zoom opening on November 7th at 2 – 3:30 pm rather than a physical onsite opening.
It would be lovely to see you online. Please register with Eventbrite through the gallery by November 6. www.propellerartgallery.ca
Artist Statement
My current body of work presents “landscapes of consciousness” from a month’s immersion in high Arctic geography. I visited Pond Inlet, Grise Fjord and areas of Devon, Philpotts and Ellesmere Islands as well as coastal Greenland.
Paintings reference the artist’s “being” in the natural world and encounters with those for whom the high north is both wild and home. My paintings are reflective of my personal experience, always aware that indigenous voices must be heard to tell their own stories and history.
My work tells the story of a visitor, a sojourner to a remote and sublime region of Canada. My purpose is to highlight this region and the themes of “wilding and cultivation.” These themes invite the viewer to unpack moral,aesthetic and legal relationships to the land and the people for whom it is sustenance and spirit: landscape and home.
The wild is evident in the land and sea. Cultivation is the sea as resource and garden.
Wilding and cultivation go hand in hand in this delicately balanced environment. My work explores these dualities to raise awarenessof this fragile and beautiful part of our country through explorations of light, earth and sea.
Janet
High Arctic Light: “landscapes of consciousness”
High Arctic Light: “landscapes of consciousness” travels in the high Arctic
LE Shore Gallery 173 Bruce St. S., Thornbury, ON (519) 599-3681
Opening: Saturday March 30, 2019 2-4 pm, artist present
Exhibition: Saturday March 30 through Saturday April 28, 2019
Janet Read
High Arctic Light: landscapes of consciousness
LE Shore Gallery, 173 Bruce St S, Thornbury, ON N0H 2P0 (519) 599-3681
http://www.thebluemountainslibrary.ca
My current body of work presents “landscapes of consciousness” from a month’s immersion in high Arctic geography. Paintings reference the artist’s “being” in the natural world and encounters with those for whom the high north is both wild and home. These paintings are reflective of my personal experience, always aware that indigenous voices must be heard to tell their own stories and history. My work tells the story of a visitor, a sojourner to a remote and sublime region of Canada.
The high arctic landscape compelled my imagination with its austerity, light, space, fragility and beauty. Wilding and cultivation go hand in hand in this delicately balanced environment. My work explores these dualities to raise awareness of this fragile and beautiful part of our country through explorations of light, earth and sea.
Read is a painter, musician and poet, who grew up near the shores of Lake Simcoe.
image: “a music more than breath but less than the wind”, 60×48, oil on linen, 2018
Travelling Mercies, Propeller Gallery, October 17 – November 4, 2018
Travelling Mercies is a show of works created from travels in China, Ireland, the Bruce Peninsula and my own backyard of Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe. Sizes range from 3×3 inches to 40×40 inches.
Light over water is a constant theme as well as visual language developed in response to these journeys. The experience of being in the natural world animates my work. Saturated colour informs these works on paper, vellum, canvas and birch panel.
Embers of the sky: saturated colour at Propeller Gallery
Janet Read: Embers of the sky
Recent works on canvas and duralar
PROPELLER ART Centre
30 Abell Street, Toronto, ON M6J 0A9
Opening Reception: Saturday November 18, 2-5pm, 2017
Show runs: Wednesday November 15 – Sunday December 3rd, 2017
Wednesday – Saturday: 12 – 6pm | Sunday: 12-5pm ph: 416.504.7142 ga*****@pr**********.com www.propellerctr.com
My recent work radiates saturated and subtle colour in response to the narrative of light over land and water. “Atmospheric abstraction” describes the form of paintings inspired by cloud and radiant light.
Lake Simcoe’s colour, space and light have informed my painting practice after my return to this landscape several years ago. Remembered land/lakescapes are imbued with the cumulative effect of looking and remembering.
“Janet Read’s abstract works are like landscapes of consciousness that metaphorically interpret various states of being of the natural world,” says Christian Bernard Singer, 2016, Senior curator, Tom Thomson Gallery.
The infinite curve of a vast horizon is my inspiration. The rhythmic parade of cloud, mist, rain, wind and waves engendered by these bodies of water, our inland seas, fascinate me and compel my work.
Janet Read 2017
Imago Evening: Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, Toronto
Imago Evening
Thursday, June 15, 2017 7:30pm Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, 106 Trinity St. (just east of Parliament-south of King) Jeanine Noyes – singer/songwriter Janet Read – visual artist Ins Choi – actor – musician Brad Woods & Great Wooden Trio S.S. Martin, Richard Green, John Terpstra – poets Catherine Daniel – vocalist Reception to follow – Link to poster – http://imago-arts.org/an-imago-evening-june-15-2017Christensen Fine Art: Rebecca Last and Janet Read
evening water, 30×60, oil and alkyd on canvas, 2017
Fall 2017 exhibition of works:
Rebecca Last and Janet Read at Christensen Fine Art
Opening: Friday September 29th, 2017, 6-9pm
432 George Street North, Peterborough ON K9H 3R5 [view map] tel: 705-876-9623Rebecca Gallery: Janet Read | Ways of cloud and water
Janet Read | Ways of Cloud and Water & small works on vellum
Opening: Saturday October 15th 2-5pm, 2016
www.rebeccagallery.com 317 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6G 3A7
The Rebecca Gallery is located on the southeast corner of Harbord St. and Grace St. About a five minute walk south from Christie subway station, north of Little Italy and a few blocks west of The Annex.
Navillus Gallery
North York Central Library
The Marks that Water Makes
