Youth Art Works at the Foyer Gallery

An exciting new art show featuring local high school students is now on display at the Foyer Gallery in the Nepean Sportsplex. Students from Bell High School, Nepean High School, Notre Dame Catholic High School, St. Paul Catholic High School, Sir Robert Borden High School, and West Carleton Secondary School are included in the show. An opening reception for the show was held on April 27th . The show will continue until Sunday, May 8th.

There are a great variety of techniques and a wide range of subjects from assemblages and abstracts, to self-portraits, photographs, landscapes and still life. These are done in unique personal styles as well as following traditional formats.

Two prizes were given, one by the Foyer Gallery and one by Wallacks Art Supplies. The Foyer Gallery prize for the most original work was awarded to Hugh Scott Douglas, a student at Nepean High School, for his abstract painting called Untitled. The painting, in acrylic on canvas, has a real look of professionalism about it. It is rendered in a series of transparent layers and then animated by a red stripe to the right of centre. Lines have then been etched into the surface revealing some of the layered colors underneath and animating the whole surface. A very accomplished work. He also has another work in the show executed in the same fashion called States of New Matter on Saturday Morning Cartoons.

The Wallacks Art Supplies award for the most innovative drawing was awarded to Shaun Matsi for a work called Watch Everything. The artist is from Nepean High School and the work is rendered in colored pencil. It features an assemblage of heads, figures and objects, all wonderfully drawn. One of the heads is of Picasso and shows the strength of his intellect in his powerful gaze. Two other faces are staring directly at the viewer, which surely holds our attention.

A work by Olivia Burhnam from the West Carleton SS is interesting and definitely eye-catching. It is called Untitled and is rendered in acrylics and water color on paper. This shows a screaming head and at first glance suggests The Scream by Edvard Munch and the grinch in the cartoon figures by Dr. Zeuss.

Daisy Williams of Bell High School has presented a still life entitled Serene Wisdom, a large painting rendered in oil on canvas with an old-fashioned traditional frame. There are several technically strong points in this work, especially the composition itself and the efficient way light is used to describe the drapery. The perspective is also solidly presented as seen in the depiction of the book. Three small glass beads also add interest.

Nikki Ballantine of West Carleton HS is represented by a work called Self Portrait, a mixed media painting using photos of herself, and probably others as well, all assembled in an interesting fashion and then varnished over. She also has a slightly larger than life rendering of herself in the upper right of the painting which is made of transparent colors on bits of newspaper clippings. The painting reminds us that we are all more than we seem to be at first glance.

Morgan Richardson, also of West Carleton HS has a dreamy rendering of a female head in a minimalist fashion in watercolors called Untitled. With a minimum of definition the head has the power to engage us. Well done!

Many fine works from Sir Robert Borden HS are on display, especially their photography. Angela Bennett has a photo in black and white of someone playing a guitar as seen up close - a good study of lights and darks. Dan Beaudoin has a fine photograph called Salarized Violin. Evan Spergel has two photographs on display, one entitled A Beautiful Day and the other A Long Life to Walk. The latter appeals to me very much because it is much more than a fine technical work. There is also a narrative element to it in that it shows an elderly gentleman with a cane walking away from the viewer along a winding country road. All of these students are from Sir Robert Borden HS.

Ana Brooks of Bell HS has an oil on canvas painting of a ballet dancer in an animated pose called Attitude en Pointe. It shows a performance by a dancer who knows what she wants out of life and is committed to it, and despite the discipline required, is quite prepared to endure the discomfort that it brings. Near it is hanging a work by another Bell HS student, Victoria McGee, which shows quite the opposite mind set. It is called Mod and depicts a young woman in a black dress and white boots, clearly in an act of decision making. The choice is evident in the contrasting black and white wall and floor pattern. A round painting, also by a Bell HS student neatly separates these two. It is of a basketball player making a lay up shot as seen from above. The work is designed to use the element of the circle several times. The work is entitled A Second Too Late and is by Shannon Dickie.

Michael Fan of St. Paul's HS has a water color on display called The Painting. It is a clever commentary on the act of painting itself. It shows a traditional still life set up but arranged around it are the components necessary to make the painting, i.e. brushes, dish of water and a tray with colors. Oddly enough, many colors are in the tray but the water color itself is rendered only in various shades of blue.

Filomena Degrazia of Notre Dame HS has an interesting work for our consideration called Urban vs Suburban. It is rendered in water color and ink and shows both a complex urban scene in one half and the other half is desert with parched earth and a cactus to show the desolation.

The show is interesting, and as you can see from the few samples chosen to comment on, widely variable in its approach and subject matter. Go and see it - you will be pleased and rewarded.

The Foyer Gallery Artists wishes to thank Tim Hortons on Woodroffe Avenue and Loblaws in College Square for their generosity in providing the sweet treats for the reception on Wednesday, April 27.

The Foyer Gallery is located in the Nepean Sportsplex, 1701 Woodroffe Avenue, just south of Hunt Club Road. For further information on location, hours of operation etc., please visit our website http://www.foyergallery.com