These three artists have been painting together in a studio on Queen Street West for over 10 years. Their influence on each other’s work and common inspiration of nature have been the constant glue to their collaboration. Their individual studies of the exact same image on display in the gallery demonstrate their distinct styles and vision of the landscape, helping us appreciate the diversity of the artistic journey.
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, October 14 from 6 to 8 pm
Join us IN-PERSON for the Opening Reception at the Leslie Grove Gallery and Leslie Grove Park.
See the show, meet other artists, bring a friend!
COVID-19 Protocols:
- We will monitor the entry and exit of people from the gallery in accordance with the COVID guidelines.
- We will flow over into the Leslie Grove Park, social distancing, for conversation.
Featured Artists
Donna Chudnow
Artist Statement
My paintings are the inquiries into the fleeting and long-term characteristics of my feelings, memories and observations, and the transition of those landscapes from the past into the present. In my paintings, I celebrate the northern Ontario wilderness, where my memories were created. I rely on my mind, emotions, and photos to recall a vision, which forms the line drawing of my paintings. The remembering turns into a reliving through brushwork and the pouring, splashing, dropping, dripping, squeezing of acrylic paints, enamels and polymers onto the canvas. This process and the bright colours that I use allow me to express the internalized joy and wonder I feel like a spectator and participant in the wilderness. Experiencing nature and its elements is a fantastic and humbling journey. It gives me the confidence to explore and work through the uncertainties of not knowing the result. The journey of my art, as it is in life, is that everything is interconnected and who we are is in the bold and colourful layering of those experiences.
Biography
The memories and feelings of childhood camping and canoe trips in northern Ontario are essential to Donna’s art. Her paintings reveal nature’s sheer beauty and glory and Donna’s joy as both a spectator and a participant. Donna discovered her visual voice through painting later in life, but her inspiration and fascination with the wilderness have been life-long. She is primarily a self-taught artist and has taken lessons at the AGO Gallery School and was also a student at OCAD continuing education. Donna was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and has lived in Toronto for the past 30 years. On most days, Donna can be found painting at her studio, Project Art on Queen Street West.
Galit Liffshiz
Artist Statement
The works in the gallery are called “Right By My Home,” a series inspired by daily walks through nature close to my home. I am the happiest when I am in nature. I have been fascinated by Ontario’s nature, especially the birch and pine forest, which symbolize rooting, strength, sustainability, stability, adaptability, but also fragility. These trees helped me to adjust to the move to Canada. I am captivated by the interaction between light and dark, softness and bluntness and fun and serious. I am aiming to create an adventure full of surprises in my painting with no will for neatness.
I use oil on canvas with mediums and glazes. The landscape is created by laminated layers to capture the impression, depth, atmosphere, and joy. Usually, I understand the painting completely when it is close to the end of its creation, as it is a layer over layer of colours and ideas. That teaches me patience. The relationship with the object, colours, and spatula strokes create the mood and affect me.
Biography
Galit Liffshiz is a Toronto-based artist. She has been painting for the last 20 years. Galit has been painting at the Project Art Studio in Toronto for many years and has been part of a community of painters who support each other, along their creative path.
She has been presenting her paintings in various galleries and venues in Toronto. She has been enjoying hiking around the world through different forests and along rivers and mountains. These are the objects in her paintings. She has been using oil on canvas and is developing different textures using moulding pastes and other mediums. Her paintings are formed by layers over layers of paint and glazes. She maintains a limited pallet for each of her paintings and enjoys mixing paint to create new colours. She enjoys the warmth of colours against coldness and light against dark. She is connected to nature and tries to integrate her feeling of the day into each of her paintings. During Covid-19, she enjoyed the forest and creeks within walking distance from her home in North Toronto. These helped her to find her sanctuary close to home.
Lisa Litowitz
Artist Statement
I seek to create contemporary landscapes liberated from realism, showing the spectacular of nature and the energy of colour.
The organic shapes and saturated hues convey the natural high I experience when exploring nature and remembering travels abroad. As I evolve as an artist, I have started to let go of my classical realistic landscape training. I use my paintings as mindscapes, only blind contour drawings to set the composition with no photo reference. Mark making and doodling with my imagination create something truly original, abstracted and dreamy, perhaps a new version of this reality.
This new collection has taken me on a journey in my art and my mind, which I am excited to share with visitors to our show!
Biography
Lisa Litowitz is a second career emerging artist from Toronto, Canada. She is mainly self-taught while taking several courses and workshops at Art Gallery of Ontario, Project Art, and Haliburton School of Art and Design to develop her distinctive style.
She is a former retail fashion buyer who has enjoyed travelling the world and painting the images and memories she has experienced.
She has exhibited in group shows all over Toronto, including Leslie Grove Gallery, Propeller Gallery, Arta Gallery, Gallery 1313, Blue Crow Gallery, Kefigallery.com. She also shows at art fairs, Artwalks and North Toronto Studio Tours.
She is on the Board of Directors at the Artist Network, a member of the Leslie Grove Gallery Committee, and Treasurer for the North Toronto Group of Artists.
You can follow her artistic journey on Instagram @lisalitowitzart or visit her website at lisalitowitzart.com.