Main Gallery | "Rooted In" Exhibit
Until April 27, 2024
Each artist is rooted in a rich biodiverse environment that heavily influences their artistic practice. Metal artist Floyd Elzinga explores the narrative of resilient windswept trees and their roots against backdrops of panoramic views featuring mountains, rustic landscapes and dynamic night skies. Of Grey County, painter Katharine Kennie is drawn to both trees and the nearly symmetrical reflections of the landscape in bodies of water. She loosely paints these observations with a limited colour palette which conveys a sense of mood and atmosphere. “Rooted In” showcases the deeply rooted and secure sense of belonging the artists feel to the land that surrounds them.
Meet the Artists
Floyd
Elzinga
Rotten stumps, broken branches, invasive species, ravaged trees as well as polar opposites and dysfunctional objects; these are the things that excite Floyd Elzinga. He has made a career out of highlighting and glorifying these through three dimensional sculpture, relief work and environmental installations for over 15 years. Current themes in his work focus on broken landscapes, portraits of trees and the aggressive nature of seeds. Floyd received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in Halifax, NS. He was initially drawn to steel, due to its malleable, plastic and forgiving nature, and he continues to utilize its range of colours as well as the way light plays off the surface. He has been exploring traditional metal working techniques to create textures and depth the same way a painter would use a paintbrush. Elzinga’s Pine Cone Colony installation was featured at The Campbell House Museum during Toronto’s 2010 Nuit Blanche. Public commissions of his work can be seen in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Toronto, as well as Rockcliffe Park Village Green, Ottawa, and the Canadian side of the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge. He currently lives next to his studio in Beamsville, Ontario nestled on the Niagara Escarpment.
Katharine Kennie
My current work engages with the local landscape near my home in rural Grey County, Ontario. While walking in this familiar landscape through the forests, fields and wetlands, I love to make observational drawings in my sketchbook. My attention is often drawn to both trees and the near symmetrical reflections of the landscape in bodies of water. When needed I also take my own photographs and video references to refer to later in the studio. Each studio painting starts with further exploratory sketches as well as a very intentionally designed colour palette. I want these compositions to be simplified and reduced down to the very essence of what captured my attention in the first place. The colour schemes I choose are often quite limited, giving the paintings a sense of mood and atmosphere. Â In this current body of work, in addition to exploring elements of composition and colour, I have been developing complex layers of surface texture. I'm interested in the evidence of process that becomes visible in small areas of each successive layer as well as the evocative and sensuous qualities of the paint itself.
