Arbor Gallery will be awash with blue when a new exhibition in the Pemberton Smith Room opens on May 8. “Les Grands bleus: Micros et macrocosmes dans leur magnificences” is the title of the show, which features the work of artists Nathalie Frenière and Lise BL Goulet and runs until May 31. This unique show combines the celestial oil paintings of Frenière with the delicate ceramics of Goulet, inviting the viewer to contemplate the relationship between earth and sky.
Frenière is an award-winning painter based in Alfred who has shown her work in Canada, the US, Europe and Brazil. Her characteristic “vaporous” skyscapes – achieved with a palette knife and thinned oil – are both abstract and representational. “The immensity of the sky in motion inspires me deeply, both for the colours and the emotions that emerge,” she says. “I try to convey the serenity of the landscape while expressing its fragility.”
Goulet, based out of Toronto, is a former educator now working with the Association francophone pour l’éducation artistique en Ontario. A ceramic artist for many years, Goulet says, “Traces of my work as an intaglio printmaker, where texture plays a predominant role, are present in my vessels. Sculptural qualities take precedence, and the ‘pot’ reveals another intention.”
Arbor Gallery welcomes the public to meet the artists at the exhibition’s vernissage on Saturday, May 10, from 1:30pm to 4pm. Also present will be artists Mélanie Villeneuve (Snowbear) and Eva Hoedeman, whose paintings are on display in the Arber Room – the members’ exhibition space – for the same period.
The Gallery is located at 103 High St. in Vankleek Hill. For more information, call (613) 678-6171 or visit www.arborgallery.org.
