Willows and Watersheds: The Grand River Landscape

Robert Achtemichuk, Jim Blomfield, Gerard Brender a Brandis, and Keith Shearsby
March 26 to May 22, 2016

ROBERT ACHTEMICHUK   I   In Homer Watson’s Footsteps

This project is an attempt to follow in Homer Watson’s steps, and locate the sites from which he made his many paintings of landscapes around Doon. In my research I collected images of successive seasons in the woods near the house in which Homer Watson was born, just down the road from the Homer Watson House & Gallery; the marsh area where the Speed River and the Grand River meet; and down the Grand River into Cambridge and Paris.  Like Homer Watson, I want my paintings to raise our awareness that we all need these natural wooded areas, these landscapes and these points of view to be preserved for our collective health and spiritual wellbeing.

 JIM BLOMFIELD   I   Grand Perspectives

The Grand River has existed in southern Ontario for 12,000 years. It is a treasured landmark, extremely significant historically, and a valuable resource for the entire watershed and beyond. Over the years, many artists have challenged themselves to capture and interpret the Grand in their own way, trying to be unique but true to the essence of the river. This series of photographs is my attempt, my way of looking at the Grand River. Viewers will take what they will from the images. My purpose is not to force or direct thought, but merely to offer up for consideration a somewhat less familiar, and hopefully different take on the Grand River, "Grand Perspectives".  

GERARD BRENDER À BRANDIS   I   The Grand River Suite

I have done several series of engravings that each formed itself into a book. But my series on the Grand River started with the thought of just doing one engraving, and it was the "Covered Bridge at West Montrose", completed in 2002. When I sat there sketching, my mind strayed into wondering which of the other sites I knew along the river -- mostly bridges crossing it -- would make good engravings. As an artist who works mostly in black and white, I know that not every subject translates well from an experience of our three-dimensional, coloured world into a black-and-white image. Each of my wood engravings requires developing an interlocking group of textures that can be "read", like shorthand, and fleshed out through memory and imagination by the viewer who adds the third dimension and colours. 

KEITH SHEARSBY   I   Bodies of Water

I first began painting the Grand River in 2004. My sculpture career was feeling stagnant and in order to re-energize myself I picked up my brushes, walked outside, and began to paint again. One of the best challenges a painter can set for themselves is to leave the comfort of the studio and paint en plein air, or on location. It leaves one vulnerable to changes in the weather and the lighting. It is not the static image of a photograph but a living, moving entity that makes its capture so elusive. The Grand around Brantford is full of twists and turns and constantly changing shorelines, vignettes and vistas. I love painting it and will continue to do so.