Until April 25, 2026
Earls Court Gallery is pleased to present A Path to Interplay, a two-person exhibition featuring new works by renowned pastel artist Clarence Porter and architect-painter Lesia Mokrycke. On view from March 19 – April 25, 2026, the exhibition showcases two experts in their media that both explore the experience of moving through landscape from their own artistic expression.
Clarence Porter’s luminous pastels capture pathways, neighbourhood streets, and familiar roadways with remarkable sensitivity to light. His compositions guide the viewer gently forward: down a shaded garden walk, across a sunlit suburban corner, into spaces where colour and shadow quietly shift. The pathway becomes both subject and metaphor — an invitation into reflection and the quiet poetry of everyday surroundings.
Lesia Mokrycke approaches landscape from a different, yet resonant perspective. Classically trained as both painter and landscape architect, her artistic practice abstracts the landscape. Her paintings are gestural fields of saturated reds, yellows, greens, and blues suggesting gardens, cities, and atmospheric spaces. Arcing forms and dripping layers hint at structures within nature while remaining fluid and emotive. Her landscapes are not fixed depictions, but living systems shaped by memory, travel, and environmental awareness.
Together, Porter and Mokrycke’s artworks create a dynamic interplay. Porter’s defined pathways meet Mokrycke’s immersive fields. His grounded vantage points converse with her expansive, layered natural spaces. Both artists are deeply attentive to how we inhabit place — how light alters perception, how colour carries experience, and how being present in a spaces transforms our perception of it.
A Path to Interplay will be on view in the main gallery at 215 Ottawa Street North, Hamilton. Earls Court Gallery is open Tuesday to Friday from 10 am to 5 pm, and Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm. All artworks will also be available to view online upon installation.
Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, March 19 from 7–9 pm, where both artists will be in attendance.
Entry is free | Family Friendly | Fully Accessible | Groups Welcomed
About the Artists
“A Walk With Brian and Lola”
“Just Us Two - II”
Clarence Porter
Clarence began his career in Toronto’s advertising industry as a graphic designer and art director before transitioning into freelance commercial illustration. Over the next 30-plus years, he created illustrations for advertising, books, and graphic design agencies, working in various media. Whether crafting scratchboard illustrations for children's books, using colored pencils for food art, painting with Martin's Inks, watercolours, or acrylics for editorial pieces, carving block cuts for packaging and card designs, or working digitally to create 3D models, Clarence has always found joy in the act of art. After relocating to Hamilton, Clarence began exploring pastels for personal enjoyment. In 2006, he was selected to exhibit in Pastel Artists Canada's “Purely Pastels” Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, where he received an Honourable Mention. This recognition fueled his passion for pastels, and he has been dedicated to the medium ever since. Earls Court Gallery represents Clarence’s artwork, and his pieces are collected both locally and internationally. In 2014, Clarence received his Master Pastel Artist of Canada signature designation from Pastel Artists Canada. In 2016, Clarence was elected a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America. He is also a member of the Société de Pastel de l'Est du Canada and the Federation of Canadian Artists. In 2025, Clarence received his Master Circle designation from the International Association of Pastel Societies and the Eminent Pastelist designation from Pastel Artists Canada. He was awarded the Medallion in the 2025 City of Hamilton Arts Awards - Creator Category. Clarence also received Elected Membership status in the Society of Canadian Artists. Clarence recently retired after eight fulfilling years of teaching at Sheridan College, where he enjoyed working with talented and creative students. He now serves as a part-time instructor at the Dundas Valley School of Art and occasionally teaches at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Clarence continues to find inspiration through the live and Zoom pastel demonstrations and private mentoring sessions he leads across Canada and North America. He also values the rewarding experience of collaborating with other artists who work in different media.
Photo by Marta Hewson
Empire of the Sun
Field
Photo by Marta Hewson
Lesia Mokrycke
Lesia Mokrycke is a multidisciplinary landscape artist based in Hamilton. She is recognized as a contemporary voice for environmental art and design in Canada and is known for her creative, conceptual, and contemplative approach to shaping distinctive landscapes. A committed environmentalist, painter, designer, teacher and writer, she has lived abroad in three countries, traveled extensively and works on issues surrounding the degradation of urban forests in a global context. Lesia has been an Artist in Residence at Halls Island, Haliburton, ON; the Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, AB; and Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. Recently, she is the recipient of several awards including two grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and an Education in Heritage award from the Hamilton Natural Heritage Committee. Lesia is the founder of the interdisciplinary studio, Tropos, and an Instructor at the University of Waterloo in Cambridge, where she teaches landscape architecture courses in the architecture department, bridging traditional drawing techniques with design thinking. Coupling poetics and a love of colour with the skills-set of a landscape architect, Lesia strives to create contemplative spaces that integrate environmental artworks into city infrastructure. Through sensory experience with nature, her paintings, drawings and installations explore how identity interfaces with ecology, climate and place. Lesia earned a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Art from the Design School at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, integrating her ideas about environmental art and design through drawing. She holds a combined Bachelor of Fine Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences, where she was classically trainied in drawing, painting and sculpture. As an undergrad at UPenn, she studied comparative literature, film and theory, graduating with honors.
