Best in show - Art Gallery of Hamilton

Best in show
Regina Haggo
March 22, 2012
I fell for a painting of some birds on a wire. And
it wasn’t one of the winners.
This is an indication of the high quality of work
exhibited at this year’s Women’s Art Association
annual juried exhibition at the Art Gallery of
Hamilton.
The jurors presented Jodie Hart with Best in
Show. Her Still Life with Heirloom and Cherries,
a traditional genre, is painted in a highly lifelike
style, bringing together varied types of objects
and textures. The cherries, for instance, are
small and rounded. They contrast with the
smooth, hard surface of the red, white and gold
porcelain jug. The white cloth, by comparison,
looks soft and pliable. It casts a shadow that is
less tangible than any of the objects.
Birds. Kirsten Hardman de Waard, Calling Long Distance, acrylic on canvas. Ron
Albertson/The Hamilton Spectator Source: The Hamilton Spectator
The cloth’s embroidery, like the decorated bands on the jug’s body, are reminders that they are created by the
human hand. But the cherries are made by nature.
The objects lie on a wooden chest in a plain interior. The container’s geometric shape complements the
rectangular shapes cast by the sun on the far wall, but the chest is solid, the sun’s shapes ethereal.
But how do you keep each disparate object from dominating the composition Hart limits her colours to browns,
reds and whites, using this limited colour scheme to unite her objects.
One Honourable Mention went to Zorica Krasulja’s Cool and Collected, an eye-catching still life depicting
preserving jars. The other Honourable Mention was awarded to Sylvia Simpson for La Cloche Abstract #1, a
lively watercolour and ink.
Simpson has always worked with an animated and loose lifelike style, but this time she is wonderfully abstract.
She uses line and form to create a strong vertical movement, contrasting the solidity of the thin line with the
watery, soft-edged shapes.
But there are just as many striking paintings that did not get awards. Callie Archer in Poppies Come Alive taps
the expressive potential of her encaustic monoprint. She reduces her flowers to a series of sinuous stems and
irregular shapes and turns up the heat with strong greens, reds, yellows, blues and purples.
Sue Gunter is equally adept at exploiting strong colour to evoke an emotional response. In Lake Walk, the trees
in the foreground, their foliage simply rendered as billowy orange-toned shapes, boldly dominate the landscape.
Orange tones are carried throughout the setting, relieved only by areas of brilliant blue in the sky and water.

The sky is cloudier and less blue in Kirsten Hardman de Waard’s Calling Long Distance. A thin diagonal bisects
the energetic swirls of white, blue, green and mauve clouds. But that’s no mere pictorial line. It’s a meeting
place for 23 small birds, their tiny bodies bravely silhouetted against the raging sky.
And Marianna Savaryn’s Russian-style icon of the Virgin Mary embraced by the Christ child is a rare treat,
especially since she’s got all the traditional details down pat.
You’ll find equally gorgeous paintings by Margaret Clark, Meena Dhar, Giselle Grenier, Sharon Hiscocks, Marcela
Prikryl and Maria Sarkany, among others.
Regina Haggo, art historian, public speaker, curator and former professor at the University of Canterbury in New
Zealand, teaches at the Dundas Valley School of Art.
dhaggo@thespec.com
Women’s Art Association of Hamilton
What: 116th Annual Juried Exhibition
Where: Art Gallery of Hamilton, 123 King St. W.
When: Until May 13
Phone: 905-527-6610
The exhibition is in the Jean and Ross Fischer Gallery. Admission is free to this part of the AGH.
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