From the Garden – Opens in Calgary on May 3rd
My show titled From the Garden opens in Calgary on May 3rd, 2025. I’ll be in attendance from 2pm that day and there will be a brief artist talk with time for questions at 2:30pm.
I know artist statements can be a little off-putting but these are thoughts I shared with my gallery, Wallace Galleries, as we were planning the exhibition:
As artists we are always making our own worlds. We’re very aware of what’s going on in the news cycle and so we make these realms to show our viewers that there is more. When I painted these recent works, my peony garden was frozen deep under the snow. I want to remind the viewer that we are able to create gardens from paint. We can conjure flowers, too.
The peonies are all from my own garden and I want the viewer to feel the same elation that I do when they emerge and bloom. I want the viewer to feel the light and the heat on the flowers, the strong shadows, as well.
There’s the quotation by Rumi, where he says:
“Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.”
My hope is that these floral expanses open up a spaciousness in the viewer where they might imagine themselves walking in a garden. The paintings will act as a reminder that beauty surrounds us.
I have the paintings up on my site here if you’d like to peruse them or right on the Wallace Galleries site. If you’d like to contact Wallace Galleries and set one aside before the show please contact them or drop in to preview the works on May 1 and 2.
Since the pandemic, I’ve imagined that one of the things my paintings might do is offer a place for contemplation. For a while a lot of people were working from home, and with all the worries of the world entering our spaces, it felt good to know that people had a place to rest their eyes, to contemplate.
I’ve been told that my paintings evoke particular summer memories for people, and that peonies especially might remind of a special person, or a time in childhood. The point of view is of someone leaning in to catch the scent of the flowers and this can remind us to take a minute, take a breath, focus on our breath.
Thanks for reading and looking. If you know of anyone that lives in Calgary, please feel free to share this post with them. It’s nice when people buy paintings, don’t get me wrong, but I also really appreciate folks coming out to view them in person. The neat thing about an exhibition is that this will likely be the last time this particular set of paintings is together in one room. A good opportunity for a selfie with peony blooms, if you ask me.
– Rob