Opening Reception
Thurs. Nov. 21., 7 - 9 pm | Meet the Artists
November 21 - December 21, 2024
Earls Court Gallery is excited to embrace the holidays season with the launch of “In Each Moment” featuring new artworks by artists Rhonda D. Abrams (Hamilton), Dylan Darwin (Hamilton), Laura Wagner (Hamilton), and Rick Worthington (Elora).
In this exhibition, each artist mines the world around them for subject matter that is found within an experience, objective viewing or idea. These subject matters are then rolled over in their creative minds and expressively laid out in visual media, in this case painting, pastel or ceramic. “In Each Moment” there is enviably something worth capturing and these artists have picked them out to share with you.
“In Each Moment” exhibition can be viewed in person at 215 Ottawa Street North, Hamilton. Earls Court Gallery is open Tuesday – Friday 10 am to 5 pm and Saturday 10 am to 4 pm. The artworks will be featured in the main gallery. All artworks will be featured online upon installation.
About the Artists
Rhonda D. Abrams
R. D. Abrams works in diverse media across painting, drawing, performance, video, and film. Her work takes her to distinct locations, and she prefers to paint en plein air, to observe the unique combinations of light, and weather in every season and to find inspiration from the immersive, non-digital, experience. Abrams has mentored hundreds of artists through her teaching at Ryerson University, and the Durham Art School. As an Associate Artist representing Unison Pastels she creates content for the pastel maker’s website, and technical content for the Unison Pastel Academy. Abrams is a founding member of The Art and Gun Club, a small group who invoke the tradition of the Group of Seven, seeking rugged landscape, and then painting the scene from within the scene. Her work has won commissions and awards, and she has been an artist in resident at the McMichael Gallery and the Banff Centre. Her work has been shown in art galleries around the world, including Aird Gallery in 2021, and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The National Gallery of Canada, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Dylan Darwin
Dylan was born and raised in Kitchener, and now lives in Hamilton. He graduated from Sheridan College, earning a BAA in Illustration and a Graduate Certificate in Computer Animation. My recent work focuses on the fleeting, and the liminal. Embracing impermanence, and capturing moments and memory through painting.
Laura Wagner
After working in Commercial Banking for many years, Laura Wagner began an exploration of Ceramics in January 2023. Needing more than one night a week to develop ideas, Laura began a studio practice in September of 2023 under the mentorship of Christopher Reid Flock. Wagner’s current practice centres on further developing their voice and using sculpture to explore shapes and movement. Laura takes a step back allowing the subconscious, hands, and the clay to have a conversation in the vacuum of the studio. My day job is in a highly regulated and structured industry. The studio and creating gives me the freedom to break free, explore and play. My practice centres on playing within this sense of freedom and using sculpture to explore the deep reaches of my mind.
Rick Worthington
Rick Worthington is a contemporary impressionist painter who lives and works in the artistic community of Elora, Ontario. He was born and raised in small town southwester Ontario where the coffee shops and diners were the spaces in which neighbours and friends would congregate and it was in these spaces where he first became fascinated with how light and colour could make the mundane feel magical. Despite having felt drawn to create art as a young person it wasn’t until he turned 30 that he could no longer resist the siren song of the artists life. While working full-time in social services he re-introduced himself to painting through hours of practice, reading and in finding mentors from whom he could learn including the well known plein air artist Kevin McPherson. Rick is now a full-time artist with a passion for painting en plein air having fallen under the spell of the impressionist masters including Mattiess and Sorolla. It is when painting in moments of quickly changing light that Rick feels he is “…best able to paint from my heart as I do not have time to overthink what I am making and it is this space that I feel most connected to the creative spirit”. Over the past two decades Rick has had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe and North America and has lived and worked in smalls towns and cities throughout Ontario and on the West Coast of Canada. Whether living and creating in a small rural town or in a large city he uses both colour and contrast in his paintings to explore intimate moments within a larger environment. Rick’s work is held in the permanent collection of the Centre Wellington Museum and Archives along with private collections throughout North America and Europe and can be found at the Abbostford, BC Gallery. He has been featured in the magazine Sideroads of Waterloo Wellington and he has had a piece recognized in the Plein Air Magazine, having placed first in the magazines Salon Competition for Plein Air Water. Rick has won numerous plein air competitions including the Toronto Plein Air Competition, the Bellville Plein Air Competition, the Ontario Plein Air Society Challenge and the Elora Plein Air Competition. He has participated in numerous juried shows including the Sooke Fine Arts show, the TD Victoria Art Gallery Paint In, the Toronto Arts Project Juried Show and the Insights Juried Art Show. When not in his studio creating, Rick can be found following his passion of painting en plein air within the communities where he travels to and where he resides.