Opening Reception: Thursday, March 31, 6 - 8 PM
Nicholas Metivier Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Greg Hardy. The exhibition will open on March 31st and run until April 23rd with an opening reception on March 31st. This is Hardy’s fifth solo exhibition at the gallery.
In northern Saskatchewan about four hours from Greg Hardy’s studio in Saskatoon, is Lac La Ronge, a landscape that is the inspiration behind much of Hardy’s current painting practice. The area is a quintessential northern Canadian landscape with long narrow islands surrounded by boreal forest. Hardy spends his summers on Lac La Ronge, sketching from the vantage point of his kayak or canoe. These sketches inform the compositions for larger canvases while his ability to memorize the feeling of a place allows him to recreate the experience using colour and light.
Hardy has painted the same vistas on Lac La Ronge for several years and yet each work is remarkably different. One of its allures for Hardy is the constantly shifting weather and transformative light that makes the familiar water, rocks and trees new again. Hardy is also drawn to the meditative quality of the water. His gestural brushwork and thin layers of iridescent paint mimics the appearance of gently moving reflections on a glass-like surface. This tranquility is often juxtaposed with brooding skies – an improbable pairing where Hardy’s poetic recollections override the logic of nature. Touches of bright orange and swirls of silver and gold throughout his canvases exemplify Hardy’s intuitive use of colour. These techniques evoke a specific quality of light and bring us closer to understanding the essence of Lac La Ronge.
Greg Hardy is one of Canada’s preeminent landscape painters. 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. In 2015, Hardy completed two major painting commissions for international corporations.
