The Art 10 Gallery at Nanaimo North Town Centre will showcase a collection of new approaches by Eileen Williamson until the end of the month.
The painter said many of her predominantly acrylic paintings in the ‘Shore Lines’ exhibit was developed over the last year.
Due to pandemic-related isolation, Williamson said she began to explore more public parks, beaches and the general outdoors.
“And I started doing more sketching and taking more photographs out and about,” she said. “I don’t like doing a painting or a piece of work that’s just from a photograph – I really need to experience where I am. I like to hear it, smell it, see it, touch it. It just goes in deeper and I have more of a memory for it when I start to paint.”
In her approach, Williamson will make a sketch of her chosen scene and take a photograph for reference. Once she’s done a rough sketch from the photograph, she will focus on what she has created and “take a little artistic licence” in the piece’s composition to make it a stronger image.
“I don’t want to reproduce what’s out there, I want more of a representation of what’s out there. And that can be many different things,” she said.
The pandemic also forced Williamson online where she discovered several different artists and took several art-related classes.
“Before, it wasn’t uncommon for me to be using 10, 12, 15 different kinds of paints in order to do my paintings. And that was kind of confusing … so I learned to really simplify the palette. I’ve started trying to work with a maximum of six colours and keep it limited so it harmonizes.”
Williamson’s ‘Shore Lines’ can be viewed at the Art 10 Gallery at Nanaimo North Town Centre until Nov. 30.
READ MORE: Nanaimo artist unveils new body of work after rediscovering motivation
mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com
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