Art is subjective. So very dangerously subjective that we find it’s safest to determining who produced the best artwork of 2019 by leaving it to the experts. As is our annual tradition, we asked some of our favourite artists from around Atlantic Canada to name their favourite pieces from other Atlantic Canadian artists. Here is the best they came up with.
Emily Phillips – “Little Ridge”
Oil on canvas, 60″ x 48″, 2019
Emily Phillips is a painter from Ellicott City, Maryland, she moved to New Brunswick in 2010 and has been connecting with the enchanted forests within the Bay of Fundy region ever since. Emily holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and a M. Sc. In Environmental Science from Mount Allison University. Primarily painting in oils, her training is the result of a decade of self-directed exploration, lessons with Maryland plein air painter Judith Fulmer, and art courses taken throughout her education.
Growing up going to Fundy Park as a child with my family, I immediately felt a connection to Emily’s work. She connects with the spirit of the forest with every painting and really captures a strong sensation through her use of color and application of oil paint. In this specific case with ‘Little Ridge’ the way she captures moss and the subtle tonal shifts of light within the forest is so refreshingly nostalgic. I can almost picture turning into a baby deer, frolicking into this piece and curling up for an afternoon nap on the moss, while rabbits hop around me. I feel that Emily can capture the essence of our New Brunswick’s old growth forests, like no other painter has. Her choice of palette with Hansa Yellow Light, Cobalt turquoise light, Pthalo blue and Phthalocyanine green really are unique to her work, helping to capture this magical glow which radiates joy and wonder through paint. Emily Phillips is currently represented by Galerie Murmur in Moncton. (Jared Betts)
Emily Philips: WEB | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Gillian Dykeman – “Appetite – Spirale en Bois”
My favourite artwork of the year by an Atlantic Canadian artist is “Appetite – Spirale en Bois” by Gillian Dykeman. I’m biased, (she happens to be my partner), but I’m also convinced that this is one of the most articulate, thoughtful, and important art projects of the year. Also, despite recent exhibitions in Vienna, LA, Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto, her practice flies relatively under the radar in her home province of New Brunswick.
“Appetite – Spirale en Bois” was completed during an International Sculpture Symposium in Quebec this summer. It’s a split log wood pile oriented into a spiral on the gallery floor in deliberate dialogue with 1960s Minimalism of Donald Judd and 1970s Land Art of Robert Smithson. But its stakes are local and urgent. The work is a provocative and poetic critique of land ownership, gendered politics of domination, and environmental catastrophe–but contained in a positive, productive gesture that opens up new possibilities for encountering our shared ecology.
So yeah, I’m biased — I’d really like our kid to grow up on a planet that is still capable of supporting a complex society. (Jared Peters)
Gillian Dykeman: FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Anne Stillwell-Leblanc – “Cosmic Lovers”
This piece is visually striking with its high contrast and ornate composition, and the lino is all hand-cut, so the symmetry she is able to achieve is mind-blowing. Anne’s work integrates nature and design so skillfully that it just feels right. I had the pleasure of meeting Anne in the ArtsLink NB’s CATAPULT program where I was floored to see how cohesive her body of work is, even across the multiple mediums she works in. She runs “Ridge Works Studio” with her mother, Kim, where they create jewelry, ceramics, and prints, producing work both as a collaboration and as individual artists. Anne has a very innate sense of design that grabs your attention, makes you linger a while, and wonder how she did it– and that’s what I look for in a great piece of art. (Kaitlin Hoyt)
Anne Stillwell- Leblanc: WEB | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Mitchelle Wiebe – “VampSites”
Weird, wonderful and wild is the work that Halifax artist Mitchelle Wiebe offers viewers in his immersive exhibition, “VampSites”, that was on view this winter and spring at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery before moving on to venues across the country. Central to the exhibition was the makeshift studio from which elements of Wiebe’s work emerged.
Full of images, objects and constructions employing various visual effects, his exuberant and improvisational creativity makes anything and everything possible. Neither narrative or journey, “VampSites” is an exploration, a funhouse of the unexpected with layers of imagery, often fantastical with his characteristic animalistic figures, a Seussian pop art extravaganza. Everything here is bigger than life but does not require us to suspend belief but just to be, to inhabit Wiebe World and soak up all of its unexpected offerings.
“VampSites” is the epitome of what the American art critic, Dave Hickey calls “the pleasant surprise”, leaving us sensitive to the past, alive to the present, and alert to the possibilities of the future. (Gerald Beaulieu)
Mitchelle Wiebe: WEB | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Susan Paterson – “Artist’s Collection”
When I was asked to choose a favourite painting for this year I immediately thought of Susan Paterson’s incredible still life painting ‘Artist’s Collection’. I’ve been a fan of Susan’s work for years, and have enjoyed watching her make the transition from watercolours to oil paints, changing mediums yet maintaining a consistent style in her work.
I admire Susan’s ability to perceive and portray subtle shifts in colour. With a casual glance, this painting at looks first looks black and white. Close inspection reveals a wealth of delightful colours quietly tucked into the details of the painting. This can only be accomplished with dedicated practice in close observation. Using this careful attention, Susan creates an image that breathes with life.
This painting was awarded second prize in still life in the 14th Art Renewal Center Art Salon, a significant international honour. Susan recently travelled to Barcelona, Spain for the opening of the exhibition at the European Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona. The painting will also be on view in New York at Sotheby’s in July. It is splendid to see a fellow Maritime Artist receiving such well deserved recognition for her dedication to her work. (Poppy Balser)
Susan Paterson: WEB | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Steve Jones – “Contours”
Contours by Steve Jones was inspired by the natural world surrounding Fundy National Park (FNP) and is presented as a triptych. It represents the topography of the Fundy Coast Eco-Region. Contours is easily Steve’s largest and most ambitious work to date taking over 200 hours.
his piece is an important step forward into his profession as an artist. He has sculpted recycled skate boards to mimic the chosen rocks that were sculpted by the powerful forces of the tides in the Bay of Fundy. He has suspended the individual pieces in a steel belt that follows the outline of those pieces.
On the whole, the triptych reminds me of three adjacent plant cells each containing the organs and cellular inclusions necessary for life and overall gives reference to the connectivity of the Fundy ecosystem in toto.
Contours is full of life, tension, and energy and it I think it reflects Steve personality very well. (Ralph Simpson)
Steve Jones: FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Katharine Burns – “Castles”
Katharine Burns’ portrait of a massive iceberg is at once quiet and arresting. At 48×72 inches, it must be even more striking in the flesh. One could choose many favourites from her virtuosic series of seascapes, wave portraits and moody ocean paintings. This subject matter of icebergs though is creeping into her work most likely inspired by her recent Adventure Canada trip to Greenland.
Just as we are within a generation who has seen life before and after the digital age, it feels as though glimpsing an iceberg will be a rare, if not impossible sight to behold in the future. Like the Titanic, the iceberg has a foreboding quality. It slowly slips into the ocean as climate change drowns its icy appendages.
Burns has exceptional skill for rendering water in all its forms. She also has a strong work ethic, and considering the large size of most of her canvases, she is incredibly prolific. Her work is precise and passionate. I hope to see more icebergs in her future, and ours. (Shelley Mansel)
Katharine Burns: WEB | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Nathan Cann – “Demo”
In the new year of January 2019, Nathan Cann debuted a series of monotype prints for the group Exhibition, “Haunt” (curated by Amy Ash at the Saint John Art Centre) featuring collages of derelict heritage buildings eroding into the contemporary city line or a forest of pine trees. As if the artworks were predictions for what was to come, by the turn of the new year of 2020 the city of Saint John will have witnessed the destruction of significant heritage buildings such as Anglin House and the Gothic Arches. In his work “Demo,” the now deceased Anglin house floats in an empty space, reminiscent of a specter.
The method of acetonitrile monotypes also allows us to consider our human “processing” of death. First Cann photographs the work, as humans often do to keep eternal what is about to be lost. The image is then printed and, using various chemicals in an almost alchemic process, the final image appears with the evaporation of the acetone leaving a whisper of the original. It is through this method that Cann seeks to “process” the complex polarities surrounding the history of the buildings:
“I think it’s also important to clarify that these spaces are…victims of industrialization but, I have no intention to place blame on the institutions of said industry. Keep in mind, the powers that would allow these spaces to be demolished are historically culprit in removing the previous. Heritage is a gritty topic with unclear answers and I feel the method of printing – that gritty, haphazard look – aptly suites the conversation” ~ Nathan Cann
Unique to this work, the forest skyline appears below the Anglin House phantom as an anchor to the composition, reminding us of the macabre cycle of life; that we will all return to dust and our built heritage to the trees. This work and the entire series acts as an accurate portrait of Saint John, a city with a complicated history cycling between grandeur and destruction; full of ghosts. (Deanna Musgrave)
Nathan Cann: WEB | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Lysanne Lombarde – “Heart Carved from Tree Mushrooms”
This piece is evocative and well executed, Lysanne has a wonderfully creative imagination and creates truly stunning work. A lot of her paintings include sculpted or built elements that reach out to the viewer in a surrealistic fashion. (Jacques Cormier)
Lysanne Lombarde: FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM
Angel Bustard – “Embroidered Flowers”
You might recognize Angel Bustard from her barista habit at Rogue. She’s sweet and polite and has never once mentioned her art to me, but it spoke for itself.
I’m a sucker for good lines, and Angel’s strong and delicate line embroideries are a delight.
Without being overwrought or convoluted, her work is intricate and detailed. A feat I admire very much when accomplished in ink, but which amazes me when done in thread (embroidery skills elude me.)
Her work is friendly and wonderful, and you get to carry it around with you all day! (Pamela Marie Pierce)