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1. Can you tell us a little bit about your process? What materials do you use to create the rich texture in your work?

Recently I have been creating rough drawings as a starting point for some of my paintings, based on the essence of weathered objects that I have found on beaches or elsewhere. Sometimes an idea for a new painting emerges from a previous painting.

The beginning of each painting tends to be loosely based on a feeling I have in relation to an eroded object or a fragment of nature such as a rock or a withered flower. I start making marks and textures on a canvas based on a shape or colour. Throughout the process, I think about form, texture and colour and apply multiple layers of acrylic paint and various mediums to canvas. Ultimately, the painting dictates its own direction as the process of painting progresses. The layers build to create a sense of depth and dimension, leading to the final patina and structure of each painting.

2. Do you see your works as unique or as part of a series?

While there is definitely continuity in my work as it evolves over time, this series represents a new body of work.



3. Do any particular lived experiences or memories, if any, inform your work?

I don’t rely on specific experiences and memories to inform individual paintings. Cumulative memories of my experiences in nature do play a role, however, I rely more on the objects and fragments of nature that I collect and keep in my studio.

4. Upon viewing the work in ‘Nature Transformed’, one is reminded of the Japanese aesthetic principle of wabi-sabi: a worldview that centers on the acceptance of transience, impermanence and imperfection. How consciously are you thinking about this idea of wabi-sabi? Is it an artistic practice as well as a personal or spiritual practice for you, too?

Wabi-sabi values and aesthetic principles resonate strongly with me and have a significant influence on my work. I’m very conscious of these ideas when I am painting and over time I have incorporated them into my way of working and my personal aesthetic.

While this is a predominant perspective for me, I have multiple sources of inspiration and reference for my work, including the work of other abstract painters.

Inside the artist's studio with Eddie the dog

5. Which necessities do you require when making art?

For me, the basic necessities are simply a space to work in, the materials I need, and regular dedicated time.

6. Your previous body of work took some reference from hard edge abstraction with an emphasis on structured linear patterns, why the departure?

I didn’t make a conscious decision to depart from structured linear patterns, the shift flowed naturally through the process of working. My recent paintings still include structured hard-edged forms and I see this change as a transition that evolved, rather than a complete departure from earlier work.

Each of my paintings is, in a sense, an experiment and new ways of working happen both by accident and through purposeful changes to the ways that I apply paint. My current work represents new interpretations of elements of nature with forms in the initial layers that are looser and more spontaneous. I have no way of knowing how my paintings will evolve over time.

VIEW NEW WORK BY GORDON WIENS

For the month of May, Bau-Xi Vancouver is pleased to present an exhibition of Canadian photographer Joshua Jensen-Nagle's acclaimed series Endless Summer. We recently asked the artist about how this ongoing body of work has evolved and what his process looks like behind-the-scenes.

1) This body of work prominently features beach scenes, what inspires your continued exploration of this recurring motif, what qualities do you seek when scouting your next location and what distinguishes the destinations you’ve photographed from one another?

The beach work is inspired from my childhood.  I would spend summers at my grandfather's beach house in Mantoloking, New Jersey and have fond memories jumping waves, surfing with my father and basking in the sun.  Those memories have been the driving force behind the work.   

I try and find interesting locations with dramatic elements.  Every location has its own distinct look and feel.  Whether it's the colour of umbrellas, water and sand, every beach seems to carry its own personality.  If there a reef in the water, or it's a rock versus sand.  All these elements bring together a unique composition.

2) Your practice has evolved through a gradual elevation of the lens, from high-angle shots to bird’s-eye view, what prompted these shifts in perspective and how does your approach and relation to subject matter and composition change as you photograph from varying proximity and new vantage points?

I’ve been photographing beaches for nearly twenty years and I was trying to find a new perspective of the subject which led me to aerial work.  I had found myself climbing cliffs with all of my gear, more often, and now working from a helicopter, my approach has changed drastically.  I have a very limited amount of time to get the image, so I coordinate with the pilot on altitude, speed, distance and maneuvers, which makes everything more challenging. 

3) How has technological advancement in digital photography affected your practice over time? Is this rapid change difficult or challenging to keep up with? What about the potential of this medium do you find exciting or daunting?

Technology has allowed me to transition into shooting aerial work.  It is a challenge, but I waited a while until the technology was more advanced and precise.  It’s exciting because of the possibilities it possesses and it is daunting because it is very expensive.  In my early years, I travelled with a few SX-70 Polaroid cameras and a bunch of film in my backpack.  Now, I have multiple high-end digital cameras, lenses, a gyroscope and a 14ft tripod for the locations I can't source a helicopter in.  Customs takes longer travelling internationally with all of this equipment.

4) Having practiced in the field of contemporary photography for many years now, what continues to be the most challenging aspect of the artistic process for you and what surprises you most when you’re shooting?

The most challenging aspect is the travel. From the outside, it looks fantastic, but when you are doing it for work and lugging a ton of gear in and out of countries with different customs requirements, it is very challenging and often stressful.   Flying across the world to photograph is a gamble when you're not sure the weather will cooperate or if the location is what you expected. You never know what you are going to get until you arrive and that can be frustrating.
 

5) Besides photography, what else do you get up to on your travels?

When I’m shooting the winter work I get to snowboard which is nice but I’m riding with gear looking for something to photograph. When shooting the beaches I try and get a swim in at the end of the day but I’m usually on the move a lot. My wife travels with me on a lot of shoots, and we get to enjoy some of the local restaurants after long days, or find some fun spots in between driving from beach to beach each day. In Hawaii, we spotted a 5 mile long sandbar in the middle of the ocean from the helicopter.  I shot it, and the next day weather didn't allow for us to get back up to shoot more work. So instead, we drove around the island, found a park with some kayaks for rent, and kayaked out to the sandbar at low-tide. It's moments like this, that makes it all worth it.  Seeing this sandbar from both perspectives was a highlight of mine for that trip.
  

 VIEW JOSHUA JENSEN-NAGLE'S COLLECTION
 

1) How was this body of work conceived?

I’ve been taking pictures like these for years. I’m intrigued by product brands and how their placement has evolved as they subconsciously impact our lives. Branding has become more and more globally blended. Every large city I visit seems to be blanketed with names - once unique, now commonplace, regardless of language or culture.

I’m sure I have boxes of negatives somewhere that could be used in this series. Branding is not new but my recent focus on it is.

2) What surprised you most about the process of photographing this brand image phenomenon all over the world?

I didn’t expect to see a man under an umbrella selling candy bars and soft drinks on the Great Wall of China or a girl on a remote island, accessible only by boat, selling melons and wearing a Dolce and Gabana T-shirt. It’s not so much a surprise to see brands in every society, but it’s always a surprise to see how they appear.

3) Travel is essential to your process. What do you get from traveling that you don't get while you're home in Vancouver?

I get a head full of images, sounds, smells that I don’t get at home. I travel when I know it will be warm wherever I go - life on the street, markets, crowds.  I hear other languages being spoken, I get lost on purpose to feel a sense of vulnerability.

4) What roles do ambiguity and humour play in your practice?

I like feeling vulnerable. I like serendipity. People are almost always nice to me and are very accommodating when I take their picture. Humour comes when there is irony. I look for irony.

 5) 'brand' is your first Bau-Xi exhibition featuring purely photographic works (archival inkjet prints) with predominantly documentary/street subject matter. What is it about this mode of documentary street photography that excites you?

I like the immediacy. I like the quick shot, the “screen grab” feel of walking the streets and seeing a gem and capturing it. Sometimes it’s perfect. When the light is right and I can hold the camera steady, it’s a bonus.

6) What is the historical and cultural significance of ‘Kill Your Idols’? Why did this particular moment in time and space draw you in?

I don’t remember seeing the face of the man in the picture. I was drawn by the back of his shirt which read “Kill Your Idols”. At first I read “Kill Your Dolls”. Later after I researched it, I discovered that Kill Your Idols was a 90s punk band from New York.

What made the photo meaningful was that where the man was standing, on a street in Kigali, Rwanda, was once a street that had been ravaged by genocide. The street is now a peaceful place where people co-exist, doing business in their shops and restaurants. It was all quite surreal. On the walls of buildings were hand-painted signs advertising Samsung and other known brands.

7) Is there another piece in the show that has an interesting or strange backstory?

Every piece in this show has a story, not so much a backstory. I look for irony. The piece titled LG is titled so because LG means large. In this case, a size large t-shirt with the face of Che Guevera boldly printed on the front. Che has become an icon, a larger-than-life figure, and now a brand. More interesting to me was that the t-shirt was on display in a high-end clothing store and priced at $830, with the price tag prominently displayed on the face of the shirt.

8) What is the most challenging part of the artistic process for you?

I’m too curious to stay with one subject. I do come back to things I’ve shelved, sometimes with a new approach.

I’m always striving for growth and change. I don’t like the feeling of being stagnant. I’m not one to say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  I believe that if you don’t push the envelope, it just sits on the desk. It’s a challenge to not get redundant.

9) How has your work developed in the past few years, and how do you see it evolving in the future?

I’ve been mounting exhibitions since 1974. I began with making sculpture and assemblages. I began to embrace two dimensional work in the 80s. Photography was always of interest to me. I liked the process of adding photos to paintings, then the reverse. I began painting directly onto photos. My subject matter has changed many times over the years. The process has been fairly consistent. Recently I began to paint directly onto images that I would then photograph to be applied to a surface. I would then as before, paint onto that photograph. One more step in the process. I liked where that was heading.

The future, who knows? Every time I try to answer that, I’m surprised at the outcome. Hopefully, all that has passed will help the process.

VIEW NEW WORK BY ANDRE PETTERSON

Bau-Xi Gallery is excited to present Dreams and Journeys, a new series by acclaimed photographer, Joshua Jensen-Nagle. We sat down with the artist to ask him about his latest series and learn about his ever-evolving process.

Bau-Xi Gallery: Ten years later, you are returning to photograph sites from your first architectural series. Tell us about your interest in revisiting these locations.

Joshua Jensen-Nagle: My work has evolved over the years. I wanted to bring a new life to the subject and add a fresh look and feel to the work. Originally, I photographed most of these locations in SX-70 Polaroid. The imagery was soft, blurry--all veiled by a dream-like haze. In revisiting the sites, I used the latest in digital cameras and have created crisp imagery, so that the viewer is able to walk right into the photographs as if they were there themselves. 

BX: Past European images were “smokey” in their finish, as though we viewed the scenes through a fog—what has changed about your interpretation of these places that demands this new, “sharper” image?

JJN: In revisiting my early polaroid series, which evoked a distinctly nostalgic feeling, I wanted to approach this new body of work with a more modern perspective, to parallel working with a digital format camera. Everything is brighter, crisper and fresher. I intentionally over exposed most of the images to give a euphoric feel.

BX: What are the conditions of your ideal shots? 

JJN: The ideal condition for these shoots are midday, when the shadows are minimal. 

BX: This series features iconic sites of worship such as the Pantheon, the Western Wall and the Notre-Dame Cathedral. What do you find inspiring about these sites?

JJN: Each and every site has its own history and attracts people for different reasons. Whether it be to pray, to marvel at its architecture, or even its existence. The human interaction is what interests and inspires me to photograph these sites. 

BX: Which aspects of your practice do you feel have evolved the most noticeably over the last 10 years?

JJN: I would say almost every aspect has evolved in the work that I make today. For me, the most noticeable shift is that I used to be able to travel with a backpack, carrying a few Polaroid cameras and film. I could walk around easily, taking photographs in any location at my own will. Now I have a 14ft tripod, and heavy digital camera gear. I need to secure permits for each location, months in advance. The whole production has become much more intricate. 

Dreams and Journeys will be on view at Bau-Xi Photo (350 Dundas St West, Toronto) from April 14-28. Join us to celebrate the opening of the exhibition on Saturday, April 14 form 2-4pm. 

VIEW THE COLLECTION

1) Your practice is primarily focused on floral painting, what about this subject matter, if anything, draws you to it and continues to inspire abstraction and formal experimentation?

Their variety of shape and colour, fragility and emphemerality.

2) What prompted the introduction of negative space and white ground in your paintings? How does it inform your work and what is its significance?

My brushwork tends to be impulsive and full of energy and which can lead to overcrowded paintings with nowhere for the eye to rest so space can be a place for the viewer to rest and to exercise one's own imagination. I love to look at Chinese landscape paintings where brush marks often hang suspended in white. A slightly under painted piece can be better than one which has been “finished off".

3) Could you enlighten us about how your compositions start, how many iterations they go through before they’re considered ‘finished’ (i.e. flipping the canvas, erasing, painting over, overpainting etc.)?

My compositions start in all kinds of ways, I don’t have a set method. Some paintings, the lucky ones, come right away and are finished in a couple of sessions. But this is rare. Often I paint right over a previous painting which is kind of like some sort of seeking revenge. A painting I’m not satisfied with will sit in my studio until I feel sufficiently removed from it to attack it again, often upside down which is especially freeing. Destruction, which is both satisfying and frightening, can play as big a part in a painting as creation. Many paintings never see the light of day.

4) Over the course of your career, you’ve transitioned from painting from still life arrangements to painting from photographs, how do you find these two approaches differ?

When I work from photos I don’t have to hurry up and get the thing done before the petals fall off and I have all the time I want I can take more liberties with the composition. The one step remove that a photo gives means I can better see the shapes and colours as an abstraction. I can also meld subject matter from several photos into one canvas.

5) Along the lines of the previous question: you often paint multiple paintings from the same photograph, could you describe how each piece and the experience of painting each piece is related or distinct from one another?

Each time I paint another piece from the same photo I need to find something new in it and to explore the possibilities for abstraction more and more. Since I am seldom if ever perfectly satisfied with a painting I often want to have another go. Riffing off the same subject again and again and getting to know its possibilities better is satisfying.

6) What kind of material properties have you observed through the act of painting? How does your handling of paint or your perception of form change as you paint? 

Material properties…..hmmm. Gravity and drips, gloopiness, butteriness?  A comforting smell.  The more I paint the more I am possessed by the qualities of the paint.  

7) This new work demonstrates some new palettes for you—are there particular pigments   or contrasts that are exciting you these days?

The Unforeseeable Fuschia which I always thought was a cheap trick.  I love the aubergine colour that the shrieky pthalo green can create with Alizarin Crimson. 

8) How would you say your work has developed in the past ten years and how do you see it evolving in the future?

The gesture is getting more and more important in the work and I seem to be getting up closer and closer to the flowers. Also I like to paint bigger and bigger. Like most artists I have no clue as to where I am going. Painting is a leap into the unknown.

VIEW NEW WORKS BY JAMIE EVRARD

1) Could you lend some insight into the tongue-in-cheek title of your exhibition 'Girls Gone Wild'?

With this body of work, I found I had the chance to really show my own experience. I'm out in nature doing all the same wilderness activities that are still thought of as a male pursuit. All the female figures in my work are participating in their surroundings, they don't stand outside of them. They’re not merely passive still-life objects like in other landscape paintings, they're building fires, climbing fences, hiking, paddling, etc. 

2) How long have you been developing this body of work?

I think this body of work has been coming together for a while. I've always been interested in landscape and the history of Canadian painting. To gather my research and find inspiration, I trek into the woods during the summer on backcountry adventures, lugging canoes through swamps crawling with leeches, collecting and chopping wood for campfires and fighting off blackflies, horseflies and every other type of biting critter out there; because of this I've always felt a little at odds with the traditions of landscape painting. It's dominated by male painters and often women are still used as part of the scenery.

3) From which artistic sources do you find inspiration?

Social media platforms, especially Instagram have influenced my work through their set colour schemes and filters. I also find myself often drawing colour inspiration from current fashion trends. I think that love of colour is the biggest factor in every painting that I do. I tend to get obsessive about colour. My canoe is this really lovely shade of soft robins-egg blue and I've used that shade for the under-paintings in at least half of this body of work. Emerald green also really got under my skin over the past couple months and came out in a lot of these paintings.

I think Kim Dorland’s work has brought new life to landscape and brought it into the contemporary art realm. He's a major source of inspiration along with Peter Doig (perhaps my favourite artist of all), Wanda Koop. I find Christopher Pratt’s use of physical space as its own subject really interesting. I also think that Thrush Holmes neon lines may be subconsciously influencing elements of my work. 

4) How long does it take to complete a painting from conception to final execution?

My process tends to be a fairly long one. I work from photos most often, but what most people don't know is that I rarely use photos that aren't at least a year or two old. Any photos I take from research trips or vacations, I will put away. I will usually forget about them, and wait until those photos aren't photos to me anymore, but instead they've become reminders of specific memories. I need to have an emotional response to an image to make it interesting enough for me to paint. It normally takes a year or two for that to happen. I remember a moment or a feeling that held significance for me and then I go back through my files to try and find the photo that matches that moment. 

After I've decided on an idea, I do a couple sketches in watercolour/pastel/ink/pencil before reverse-engineering that composition with oil paint. In watercolour I work from lightest to darkest, and in oil paint I work from darkest to lightest. This process gives me enough space from the representational image to enjoy the more meditative and intuitive aspects of painting. 

5) Your paintings appear to be highly pre-planned. What kind of techniques are you experimenting with?

In terms of technique, I've been really enjoying the physicality of pushing paint around on canvas and working with oil paint in all sorts of different forms. From working with it almost like watercolour and diluting it to let it drip and mix and flow to sculpting the paint up in different areas to drawing with it on the canvas; mark-making has become a huge part of my process.  

6) Tell us something we wouldn’t guess from your work.

I often add in little objects, almost like Easter eggs. I think that people miss these, so it's always worth taking a second look just in case. There’s a little portage sign in the distance in Forest Through the Trees, and a couple of crushed empty beer cans in Rainy Daze and Delays. The cans are actually a representation of my favourite beer, Wellington SPA from my hometown of Guelph.

VIEW NEW WORK BY MEL GAUSDEN

Elliott Wilcox, Rackets 03, Chromogenic Print Mounted to Archival Substrate

Here we take a look back at Leah Sandals' Q&A with Bau-Xi artist Elliott Wilcox, which sheds light on the inspiration behind Wilcox's award winning series Courts.

Leah Sandals, National Post

Friday, Jan. 28, 2011

If art was a sport, Elliott Wilcox might be seen as a future Grand Slam contender. In the past two years, the young U.K. photographer has won multiple international prizes for his strangely haunting series of work on racquet-sports courts. Now, with his first Canadian solo exhibition on in Toronto, Wilcox rallies with Leah Sandals about squash, space and Saatchi's art-reality TV show.

Q. I grew up in a squash-playing family, so these photos have nostalgic value for me. What drew you to this topic?

A. When I first started, I wanted to look into something that hasn't been looked into in photography so much--the idea of leisure. A lot of photography in England has looked at work. But I was interested in what people wanted to do in their own time, at their most
comfortable. So I started looking at spaces of leisure, from football grounds to cinemas. Through that I got into squash courts and real tennis courts.

Q. The marks left on the walls of these courts are fascinating, almost like drawings, aren't they?

A. They look amazing. I love the fact that it's history on the wall itself--the history of the game and of the people who have played. There's a great sense of time on the walls. One of the real tennis courts I photographed in the south of England was made in the 1700s with a special pigment. It creates a really painterly effect. What I'm fascinated by even more is the large space of these courts. It can be very overwhelming, especially when there's nothing else going on. When there's people there playing, it's about the sport. But when you're a spectator only of the space it becomes something completely different. A lot of these clubs are also prestigious. Queen's Club in Notting Hill is where lots of people play before Wimbledon. When I photographed their rackets court they'd just had it painted, and the members were upset because they thought the paint would make it play differently. That fascinated me, because you wouldn't think paint would make a difference. But if you've been there so long, maybe it does.

Q. Most North Americans aren't familiar with real tennis or rackets. What are these games?

A. Real tennis is the original version of tennis. Originally, it was played in a courtyard--a court --with sloped walls. The crowns on the walls relate to scoring. And there's other royal connections, too--many of these courts go back to the 1400s and are in palaces. Henry
VIII was a famous real tennis player. I went to photograph his court at Hampton Palace and actually had to pay to book a 6 a.m. Monday morning slot, because it's so busy. Rackets is the predecessor of squash, and squash was I believe invented for the poorer
man who couldn't get a rackets court. Picture a squash court and times that by four. They're often painted black, which is nice; it makes your eyes want to look around. It's a really fast and strong game, like firing a snooker ball around the room. I've heard it's
really dangerous as well.

Q. Do you find it difficult to play now that you're so focused on photographing courts?

A. I still play squash once a month. It hasn't stopped me. But it has made me think more. When I first started the project, I'd go to play and say, "I wish I'd brought my camera."

Q. In terms of treating art as a sport--you were a contestant on the BBC reality show School of Saatchi. What are the pros and cons of doing art that way?

A. I'm not that big a fan of reality TV. But the benefit was having the opportunity to work with big names like Tracey Emin and get some good feedback. I also met a lot of friends through that show. It's good in one thing and bad in another, but overall it was a good
experience.

Q. Does art perhaps contain a mix of discipline and pleasure that's similar to sport?

A. I believe that. This project is not quite an addiction for me, but I'm fascinated by these courts. It's been a whole process of meeting people, of research, of getting access to photograph. I also have a new series on another kind of constructed space --indoor climbing walls. I'm intrigued by what we bring indoors--we bring cinema indoors with home entertainment, say...when maybe it'd be better to get out and experience things.

Click here to view the collection

1) The Bau-Xi Gallery feels a great sense of pride and gratitude in having the privilege of representing your work for forty years. Are there any touchstones in your practice or philosophy that have remained a constant theme or preoccupation over this period of time ?

Because the camera can reproduce almost any subject, place or incident in exquisite detail, it leaves the painter free to invent and insinuate oneself into a world of one’s own. This is both an advantage and a problem. People still insist the artist should try to become the camera. The inventor-painter can open other aspects of reality. That is challenging and one has to newly invent the world each time when starting a new work.

2) Double Entendres is an intriguing and heavily weighted title for your solo exhibition. Please explain the genesis behind it. 

Double Entendres have different interpretations or meanings which allow for poetics and insights, plus in this particular situation, my two exhibitions ( at Bau-Xi Vancouver and my retrospective at the Burnaby Art Gallery ) are running simultaneously but with different approaches and media and time sequences.

3) One immediately equates the word COLOUR in bold letters to your work in general. What role does colour play in your work ? 

Colour: That is hard because colour use is such a personal expression, possibly even cultural with those choices of values that become recognizable in place and context.

Emotions and deep or fragile feelings can be remembered through colour as well as the other prime senses. A coloured stroke put beside another hue or tone evokes a dialogue of its own for me.

Colour is love. 

4) The sense of sound is often strongly evoked in many of your titles such as Arpeggios, Diminuendo, Mumbo Jumbo, Clashes and Bangs, Sun Song with either their musical references, use of sound poetry, or references to human speech or sounds from the natural world.
How does music or sound inform or inspire your work ? Do you have any favourite composers or musicians or genres of music or a radio program or station that you often listen to while you paint or do you paint in silence ?

Music and soundscape is vital to me. In a time of great grief and trauma, I feel it was music that saved me from total despair. The abstract language of music speaks to the visual artist in the same way. The approach to the form and vitality of expression and feeling is similar. There is enormous happiness, excitement and humility in recognizing that unique understanding that is humanity at its best. 

I am from another era in today’s mass media hype. Classical music in most of its forms as well as contemporary composers and performers keep my CDs flourishing as well as the CBC ( when it behaves itself.)

Today I prefer chamber music, more intimate noting, although opera excites and thrills me with the marvellous voices that flourish today all over the world. The combination of theatre, sound and drama can’t be beat !

5) Another consistent theme in your titles seem to be about the journey or the transcending of boundaries or the reference to this particular place or geography that you call home for example: Coming from Away, Out of Bounds, Crossing-Ways, Pathways and Partings , Vancouver Sound-scape , West Coast Suite . 

Titles are a way of adding poetry, linking the message/subject and giving some insight to the art, with the necessity for naming. Often it can be more difficult than painting . 

The “Journey“ is a metaphor for a traveler in time and idea space. Every experience brings new questions and revelations not always digested at the same time , so pathways just lead the way as boundaries eventually get fragmented and blown away.

6) Please explain the difference and/or similarity between painting on paper and painting on canvas in your works as you typically include both media in your solo exhibitions.

Painting on canvas or wood or paper is quite different. Each surface has different qualities and different pigments seem to require special techniques. I love the sensuality and depth of colour of painting with oils for the canvases, but the racy fast drying acrylics work best for me on paper.

7) Congratulations on your upcoming solo retrospective at the Burnaby Art Gallery opening Nov 16th, 2017. What can we look forward to there that would be different from this upcoming exhibition at Bau-Xi Vancouver ?

A few years ago art critic, writer, and art historian Robin Laurence suggested a “look back” for a possible retrospective of my work. So I revisited old drawings and paintings from the very beginning. Things stored away not seen for years brought back new feelings that I could enlarge upon and add new vigour to my palette and confidence. The retrospective that the Burnaby Art Gallery has most generously offered to mount will consist of multiple paperworks done almost from the beginning of my Art Journey up to the present day.  I understand there will be a published catalogue as well.  

The upcoming Vancouver Bau-Xi exhibition consists primarily of new works on canvas as well as some new large mixed media paperworks. I am grateful for the tenderness and generosity of both galleries and curators.

8) And do you have any advice for young artists just beginning their artistic journey ?

Words for young artists …. .. keep the passion alive and trust your instincts.

VIEW MORE WORK BY SYLVIA TAIT