Opening Reception: Thursday, March 8, 6-8 PM
Nicholas Metivier Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Greg Hardy. The exhibition will open on March 8th and run until March 29th with an opening reception on March 8th. This is Hardy’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery.
Sprawling across northern Saskatchewan on the edge of the Canadian Shield is the glacial lake of Lac La Ronge, the source of inspiration behind Greg Hardy’s current exhibition of paintings. It is a quintessentially Canadian landscape; fresh water infused with long narrow islands against a backdrop of boreal forest. The town of Lac La Ronge is the point of departure for Hardy’s 30-minute boat trip to his island cabin where he spends his summers. It is this place that provides Hardy with the raw materials he needs for his paintings.
Seated in a kayak or canoe Hardy paddles out amongst the islands in search of a series of shapes or patterns to paint. Although Hardy’s process begins with sketches made onsite it is not until he is back in his studio that his canvases are formed into fully realized paintings, created from memory and executed using his intuitive understanding of colour and light. His signature skies are woven with iridescent paints and accented with bright colours against the contrasting tranquil waters of La Ronge. It is this poetic balance between sky and water that brings us closer to understanding the nature of the ever-evolving landscape of Lac La Ronge.
The sky has been a visual playground for my responses to nature for as long as I’ve been a painter. The changing sky over Lac La Ronge is varied and beautiful, angry and mellow. My ‘Sky Poems’ pay homage to the beauty of places that I know well and have grown to love over many years of observation. Referring to sketches and letting my emotions take over in the studio, I look for balance in the paintings using a palette of full throttle colour and gestural brushstrokes in skies that sit over contrasting calm water.
– Greg Hardy
Greg Hardy is one of Canada’s most renowned landscape painters and comes from a school of important Western Canadian landscape painters which includes Dorothy Knowles. His work is included in many corporate and museum collections in Canada and around the world. Museum collections include Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax; Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon and Glenbow Museum, Calgary.
