Stopping Place | Ariane Beauchamp, Laura Culic, and Boyd Waites
August 13 - 27
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Boyd Waites, Breath of Air, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in, $1940, framed by the artist
Wall Space Gallery is proud to present new works by Ariane Beauchamp, Laura Culic, and Boyd Waites. Each artist, through their respective medium and artistic language, addresses our ever-evolving connections to the natural world and the profound effect it has on our sense of place.
A stopping place is typically understood as a moment of rest during a long journey – a pull over to the side of the road for a picnic or a stop at a lookout along the scenic route. It can break up the distance and create avenues for new experiences.
In their painting practices, Laura Culic and Boyd Waites focus on mental connections to landscapes and the emotional memories of places visited.
Laura Culic, Cypress Hills, oil ad cold wax on panel, 30 x 60 in, $4750
Culic sculpts cold wax, oil, and pigment into textural vistas and intimate close-ups inspired by her own meanders in nature as a hiker and boater. She captures the peaceful moments of being within and absorbing your surroundings.
”Process driven and multilayered, my approach involves building up multiple layers of wax and pigment. This process is an exploration in mark making, layering, drawing into, and scraping back paint, using a range of tools and media. By repeatedly adding and subtracting; concealing and revealing, in a process akin to nature’s cycles of erosion and decay, growth and renewal, I work to capture the spirit, atmosphere and energy of place.” - Laura Culic
Laura Culic, Little Pond, oil and cold wax on panel, 60 x 40 in, $5300
Similarly, Boyd Waites brings his inner emotional resonances to life in soft, effervescent oil paintings that dissolve landscapes into expressions of mood and light. He refers to his painterly language as Abstract Expressive Landscape; less representative of actual places and instead maps of inner feelings tied to a locale.
Boyd Waites, Inbetween there where the light is, oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in, $860, framed by the artist
“It's about the natural landscape but mostly it's about our inner condition and the sensory nature of people and moments that enrich and inform our condition. I am always seeking to elevate and uplift through my paintings, to elevate the viewers perceptions, feeling or mood and sense of place…I mainly paint in oils as I find the natural softness and long drying time suits my process which can often be rather engaged almost meditative or highly energized.” -Boyd Waites
Boys Waites, Muskoka Lake of Bays, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in, $2550, framed by Wall Space
Ariane Beauchamp, Moonlit Flights, ink and watercolour on paper, 22.5 x 30 in, $2030, framed by Wall Space
Ariane Beauchamp is deeply invested in the symbiotic connections between other living beings and the natural environment. Whether mutually beneficial or one-sided, Beauchamp believes there is much we can learn from the synchronicity and balance of ecological systems. The delicate intricacy of Beauchamp’s ink and watercolour paper-cut collages speaks to the fragility of these relationships. She asks us to take a moment to contemplate our place amongst and our effect on these relations. Beauchamp’s stopping place is a call for a change in direction.
“After all, we are not so different from the fauna and flora around us. We create strong bonds with the world and the spaces we inhabit. May it be the urban ecosystem we navigate, or the rural spaces in which we stake claim. Over the last few years, many of us have lived through periods of isolation, finding the inner sanctuary of our homes to be our new ecosystems.
Now that we emerge and once again to see the wider world, what have we discovered? How has our understanding of belonging changed?” - Ariane Beauchamp
Ariane Beauchamp, Midnight Harvest, ink and watercolour on paper, 22.5 x 30 in, $2030, framed by Wall Space
Through layered paper-cuts, Beauchamp’s pieces take on a three-dimensional presence. The creatures depicted in her works seem to proliferate outwards toward us, simultaneously growing and combining with the roots, branches, fungi and the insect life surrounding them. Soft bleeds of watercolour and ink unify her collaged spaces into harmonious organisms.
Ariane Beauchamp, Friend or Foe, ink and watercolour on paper, 22.5 x 30 in, $2030, framed by Wall Space
“I have a deep affinity to the land and paint in direct response to my powerful emotional connection to the dense forest, lakes and rocky, wild landscape of the Canadian Shield. Whether abstract or representational, my work evolves from impressions of the natural world I carry in me as a result of many meditative hours spent in this harshly beautiful environment; hiking, paddling, observing, absorbing, and just being.” - Laura Culic
Laura Culic, Northern Boreal, oil and cold wax on panel, 60 x 40 in, $5300
Beauchamp, Culic, and Waites transport us to relatable moments of being willfully lost within nature. We may lose sight of our own symbiotic role within the world as we build houses, live in suburbs and on farms, and travel by car and plane. Nonetheless, we are inevitably always engaged with the world. May this exhibition act as a stopping place, a reminder to pause and ground yourself in the environment in which you find yourself. A few moments to connect, before you continue your journey.