Creative Synergy

June 28 - September 22, 2024

This collaborative exhibition, featured original works by the ten member artists of the Artists' Workshop, celebrated the power of 'Creative Synergy' in artmaking. The works featured a wide range of subjects, created in a variety of media including: oils, acrylics, watercolours, graphite, ink, mixed media, and batik. Diversity in expression is one of the hallmarks of the Artists' Workshop group which has operated in Saskatoon for over 30 years.

In a mutually supportive atmosphere of trust, each artist works towards their own varied goals while supporting each other and the whole.
When their pieces are showcased side by side, a creative synergy emerges from the ingenious use of colour, line, texture, space, and materials.
Members of the group are selected through a juried process that requires a high level of skill, a strong record of success, and a deep commitment to collegiality in the practice of art.

Artists included: Celeste Dumonceaux Delahey, Jean Dudley, Patricia Katz, Wendy McLeod, Val Miles, Paige Mortensen, Sharron Schoenfeld, Anne Simmie, Kathleen Slavin, and Leslie Stadnichuk.

Breaking the Rules: 
Traditional and Contemporary Still Life

By Della Hunter

March 29, 2024, to June 23, 2024

Getting through Covid and beyond with still life.

These works explored a mix of traditional still life, (the dark background with objects at eye level) and contemporary (light backgrounds and differing points of view) and rule breaking. Breaking the rules for Della is to change the angle of view, especially a view directly above, to have something unexpected in the scene or to take the setting outdoors. Still life painters tend to follow rules about composition (e.g., that the main object is at eye level) and that the object painted is set indoors. Della likes to take more extreme points of view. It is nice to be able to paint an object outside in natural light and to paint found-objects as they lay rather than structuring the composition and lighting. By putting a lemon in an old barn lantern, something unexpected is available but, it is possible that some will see the lantern and not the lemon.

Painting is both a pleasure and a struggle. It is never easy. On the other hand, Della is always learning and discovering new things about art and the world. The more she looks at something, the more there is to see. The trick is to bring that to life on canvas. That is always a translation and a bit of magic when a brush stroke is just right. It never gets old!