ARCHIVE OF PRESS RELEASES

2009 Season in the Bainton Gallery

Thursday, December 31 2009

The Blyth Festival Art Gallery is presenting a very exciting and entertaining 2009 exhibition season. The season opens with the annual Student Show (May 7th until May 28th), an opportunity for the high school art students of the Huron Perth Catholic and the Avon Maitland District school boards to show off their best creations in a variety of media.

Then budding artists from the area celebrate their work in an open, non-juried exhibition. The Community Show, also an annual event, opens on May 30th and runs until June 19th. The popularity of this event was evident last year when organizers almost ran out of space for the 100- plus pieces on display.

Three theme shows then follow. The first, from June 26th to july 15th, is entitled "The Art of Function", featuring daily household pottery made by eight of the best potters in Ontario. The beautifully designed utilitarian ware will be displayed along with decorative one-of-a-kind pieces made by the same artists.

The second, Perceptions: Abstracts on Aluminum by Darlean Morris will open on July 17th and will run until August 5th. Darlean calls herself a “Bloor West Village” girl because she was born in the west end of Toronto, and attended Humberside Collegiate. Darlean was a visual arts secondary school teacher and department head for the Peel Board of Education, and the Thames Valley Board. Currently, she resides in St. Marys with her life partner, Gary Austin. She has a studio and is the local featured artist for the Coffee Culture Café in St. Marys. Darlean’s interests in both light and metal has launched her into exploring the artistic opportunities afforded to her by aluminum as the substratum. Her semi abstract landscape vision is influenced by the
environment around her, not as a backdrop, but as a subject unto itself. She views nature with an eye on pattern and movement, light and shade, all in a balance with outer and inner meaning. The aluminum substratum is revealed as an integral, shining part of the design. Its natural surface quality, when combined with paint, results in an enhancement of the reflection of light. When oil or acrylic paint is married with the reflective quality of aluminum, the result is a unique and powerful expression of vitality.

The final show, "Rural Routes", is a group presentation by 16 talented artists from the Stratford collective, Gallery 96. This showing of paintings, metal, sculpture, fibre, and other media opens on August 7th and runs to the end of the theatre season.

All exhibitions are held in the Bainton Gallery, located in the Blyth Memorial Hall next to the Festival Box Office. The gallery is operated by a small but enthusiastic group of volunteers. For more information on exhibitions or working with the gallery committee, contact Robert Tetu at 519-345-2184 or email gallery@blythfestival.com .

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Photo: From Abstracts on Aluminum by Darlean Morris

NEWS & EVENTS

ARCHIVE OF PRESS RELEASES

2009 Season in the Bainton Gallery

Thursday, December 31 2009