Members' 70th show | | Colour and Form Society (CFS)

COLOUR and FORM SOCIETY’S 70th Anniversary Members’ Exhibition

AWARD WINNERS selected by Juror Flavio Belli

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FIRST PRIZE - Diana Hillman - THE BORDER #3 (FLIGHT SERIES)

There is much to be admired here. This is a painting of a photograph taken from inside a plane through a thick piece of glass. We have become very familiar with this scene because we have all taken this photo at some point or have seen our friends’ photos from a plane. And this photograph has lots of tilt and a curved horizon with a great view of landscape features both natural and man-made. Hillman has elevated this rather dull photo into a spectacular 48 x 60-inch oil, chalk and pencil on panel. She has placed us right there. Both inside and outside the plane. You have to remind yourself you are not teetering on the edge of the plane’s wing freezing to death. And you do that by catching sight of the transparently dull and scratchy window reflection that the artist has most subtly placed across the painting.

SECOND PRIZE - Douglas Stratford - A PLACE FOR ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN

The painting stands out from the other 15 forest scenes in the exhibition and from any other landscape paintings I’ve seen recently. We’re in a micro-macro environment. The crowns of cushiony trees are melon coloured and cotton-ball soft. They seem to be caught in the wind and some are detaching and floating away. The bottom 5th of the painting is a calm and reflective lake of rich blue. Is it releasing little blue petals that float upward? This is something out of a dream. But the artist has anchored the fantasy with a pointy bit of realism in the manner of a half-submerged driftwood tree. Who is Archibald Lampman and how is this his place? Oil on canvas.

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THIRD PRIZE - Micheal Zarowsky - MORNING LIGHT CATCHING A SNOW-COVERED PINE

Like the other two prize winners this is also a landscape. And like the other two it has a strong sense of realism coupled with unreality. Are we really alone in this crackling cold forest? How did the artist capture such undisturbed detail? Watercolour and acrylic on panel would be a technical marvel and a feat of dogged determination in this environment. But this scene has none of that struggle. We are facing a gloriously lit riot of undisturbed forest in a rolling sea of snow. And we are right on top of a tiny snow-covered Pine. Zarowsky masterfully brings all this alive through multiple short strokes of warm and cool colours. He makes us believe we are both observer and creator alone in nature.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

selected by Juror Flavio Belli

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HONOURABLE MENTION - Lisa Graziotto - INTERMISSION

What a wonderfully humorous, calmly quiet moment of surreal purity. We stand looking at a chap-wearing cowboy tipping his USA striped bag of popcorn to his lips while in the background two roadies struggle with a monumental canvass of a butte from Monument Valley. Flat planes of dusty grey surround the painting within the painting. Its tilted towering realism frames and mirrors the central figure’s determined concentration of tilting the bag to get every last sweet caramel covered kernel of popped corn. Graziotto asks us to stop and fill in the blanks. It’s intermission after all.

HONOURABLE MENTION - Margaret Horvat - SKYLINE

In her oil on canvas, Horvat presents us with a tour-de-force of transparency and colour. It might be something a child sees on a windowsill in the garage. Seen from slightly below, her grandfather’s collection of coloured bottles and jars, lined up three deep against a softly clouded blue sky, reflect and reflect and reflect. We’re mesmerized by the artist’s ability to wobble each glass object and depict the influence it has on its neighbour. The composition is full of impressive height, substance and dignity. Each bottle neck a tower of (de)light.

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HONOURABLE MENTION - MaryLou Hurley - GERALD DEAN DISCOVERS GERALDINE

On her unique mosaic sculpture, the artist has puzzle-pieced hundreds of tiny bits of clipped coloured glass and mirror. Imitating a fitted vest, buttoned at the front and open at the back, her complicated composition includes a knotted necktie and hooked bra straps. And is that a tattoo of the sun on the torso’s back? The complexity of the composition is relieved by its technical perfection. Hurley has transformed the stainless-steel store mannequin with smoothly flowing, highly reflective hot and cold colours. Looking dangerous to the touch, the artist has filed all the sharp edges, smoothed the grout, and coated the surface so that it is, in fact, a pleasure to caress.

SPECIAL MENTIONS

selected by Juror Flavio Belli

(Click on the image for the expanded view)

Thelma Amos - SOMEWHERE IN TIME

A very pleasing abstraction. It has structure, intimacy, and dynamic movement.

Mary Elizabeth Duggan - 2020

An original approach to simple subject of an island-rock in an algae-covered pond. A perfect metaphor for what we all experienced in 2020.

Ronald Greig - FISH CANDY

The sheathed knife, underscoring the title’s acerbic wit is almost hidden in the high realism of candy-coloured lures and shiny hooks bathed in a really bright light. Clean and crisp.

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Saulius Jaskus - JUAN ALONSO MIQUELI: KANE'S REMORSE

A delicately modelled nude in
Terra Cotta of a prone Kane in penitent response to God’s punishment.

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Golnaz Khadivi Zand - THREE COUSINS

A superbly rendered graphite drawing of young children and the delicate play of light and shadow on their faces.

Aeri Lee - FREEDOM

This one made me smile. Honestly naive with a touch of the surreal.
Great use of colour and perspective.

Renee Makino - SHAPING THE SQUARE

This active, transparently painted, acrylic sketch of an urban scene has great movement, composition, and colour.

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Susan Davidson Mandel - EVOLUTION

At first viewing, brilliantly coloured blossoms. But then - a pale blue description of the science of Creative Evolution of life, mechanics, and phenomena with a barely discernible audience of faces.

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Kelly McNeil - A REAL CANADIAN FINAL FANTASY

Everything works to direct our gaze to the emotional centre of the canvas. In-focus and blurred Realism infused with rich colour and light.

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Jane Nwakoby - TRES BIEN

Terrifically original and free. Circles within circles. A smiling boy gives us a thumbs-up. It’s all good. A great use of materials that, in combination with the subject, communicates a transcendent joy.

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Sherry Park - SUNRISE

For anyone who has never experienced the early morning sun penetrating
a dark forest, Sherry’s masterful painting provides the experience beautifully.

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Mara Smelters Wier - SNOOZING BORDER COLLIE

Really great drawing and watercolour of a sleeping dog literally puddling into the paper. This is the type of loose sketch that can outshine a more detailed painting in capturing its subject.