Soul Search: abstract expressions by Suzette MacSkimming
The largest room at the MERA Schoolhouse is used as an art gallery where local artists showcase their work. Each month a new artist graces the walls of MERA bringing their own unique energy and life to the space. For the month of May, MERA welcomes painter-printmaker Suzette MacSkimming with her exhibition Soul Search: abstract expressions. Join us on Saturday May 3rd, 2pm to 4pm for a Meet the Artist event.
Soul Search: abstract expressions is an exhibition of new and recent acrylic paintings by Suzette MacSkimming. These works are the latest culmination of a lifelong artistic career, during which Suzette has explored the endless possibilities of abstract expressionist painting. Working in a tradition that began as an artistic resistance movement, a desire for new beginnings, Suzette has evolved her own style of abstraction exploding with vibrant colour and dynamic movement. Her paintings turn the viewer’s imagination loose to run free in a space where inner and outer worlds collide.
A fine-arts graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Suzette studied with many leading west-coast abstract expressionists. After a year travelling in Europe, she moved to Canada, studying with Robert Markle and Dennis Burton in Toronto, and Richard Gorman and Leonard Gherbrandt in Ottawa.
Suzette’s work has been widely exhibited by galleries, including Ottawa’s Atrium Gallery at Centrepointe, Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, and successive galleries in Perth, where she moved in 2002. She has worked in residence at the Contemporary Artists’ Center in North Adams, Massachusetts, where she created and exhibited a series of large monoprints. In 2007 fifteen prints from that series were purchased by the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, Ottawa, where they are on permanent display.
Suzette will also be offering a workshop on Friday May 23rd, 10:30am to 4pm. $60 for MERA members and $75 for non members. Space is limited. Please register by emailing MERA admin meraschoolhouse@gmail.com.
You are invited to join Suzette at the MERA Schoolhouse in McDonald’s Corners (974 Dalhousie Concession 9A) on Saturday May 3rd, 2pm to 4pm to meet the artist, view their works and purchase that “must have” piece. If you cannot attend the Meet the Artist event, to arrange another viewing time please contact Tim Booth timothybooth9@gmail.com.
