Artists Patricia Anderson, Ruth Kamenev, and Judy Sutton bring energy and fun to gallery this month
This month’s Gwen Fox Gallery exhibit features art from Patricia Anderson, Ruth Kamenev, and Judy Sutton. The three artist’s work combines to create a cozy and comforting fall show that blends the familiar with the fantastic.
Patricia Anderson
Anderson is a fibre and glass artist whose work is colourful with her pieces being impressionistic and some veering into abstract work.
“Most of my work is sort of impressionistic. It’s usually landscapes but recently, I have been going into more sort of freer types of things which don’t depict anything in particular. Just colour and texture and because I’m working with wool, I can use free motion stitching and embroidery, which I hated as a child, but now, I love it because I can add it to my pieces,” she said.
Anderson has worked in three different mediums throughout her time as an artist. She started with paint and then moved on to fused glass work, now, she has moved on to fibre art creating felted pieces from dyed wool with some including sewn elements.
She explained that many of her pieces in the gallery this month are inspired by the Manitoba landscape.
“When I’m driving, I just look and see something and stop, maybe take a photo of it. There’re certain colour combinations that I really love. I love the canola, the autumn colours, the unity, the combinations — the greens and yellows and the lighter oranges. Those have always been my colours,” said Anderson.
Her journey as an artist began when she was quite young like many kids through a love of drawing.
“I was about 12 or 13, and I started to draw, mostly drawing at that stage. I took art in school and I just always loved it. I did my exams and so on, and then I just took classes. I wasn’t able to go to university or anything at that point, but I took classes with artists in the Caribbean, that’s where I grew up. Then, when I came here, I started at the university, and I’ve done quite a number of courses in art. I’ve been teaching myself, looking at YouTube, and doing online courses. When I was in England, my father and my youngest sister live there, we went and we did a couple of courses with some really well-known fibre artists, felting artists, and all those little things just inspired me,” said Anderson.
Her advice for artists wanting to start their journeys is to just keep making art.
“Initially, when you first start, of course, it’s not quite what you imagine it’s going to become on your paper. But it’s a skill. It’s a hand-eye coordination. It’s learning to look at nature and seeing things that you don’t normally see, because your eye tends to tell you that it looks so, and it’s not really so. You have to teach yourself to look, and you have to practice. I think that’s the main thing,” said Anderson.
She encourages residents to come to the gallery this month.
“I think it’s a fantastic show. I mean, we’ve got some really beautiful artists in different mediums, which is great. It’s just a way to see how different artists work and to talk to them too. I think that’s really important. And the artists always love to talk,” said Anderson.
Ruth Kamenev
Kamenev is a multi-disciplinary artist. This month she has a variety of realistic pieces available to view but she’s recently started taking on the abstract and so keen-eyed attendees will find a few of those pieces on display as well.
“I have five pieces that are made with monoprints, and they’re not like my other stuff. It’s quite new. It’s a different direction. I actually paint in several different mediums. I started out in watercolour, and now I do acrylics as well, and alcohol inks, and this new business of monoprinting with a gel plate, which is a lot of fun, very exciting,” said Kamenev.
She explained that her subjects often involve the natural world. She’s fond of birds, flowers and landscapes.
“I’m a nature girl. I like to be at the lake. I like to go for hikes. I take my camera with me wherever I go,” Kamenev explained.
In addition to being influenced by nature, she finds that the Gwen Fox Gallery shows themselves are very inspiring.
“They do a lot of different things here. You never know what you’re going to see, and it’s really quite wonderful. So other artists inspire me a great deal. I’ve taken lots of courses, and I’m about to take a mixed media course,” she said.
Kamenev said that her creative journey started when she was very young but it didn’t start as many people do with drawing or painting.
“I started very young, but not painting. The creative journey can take many different paths and forms, and mine was a very jagged path. Even as a young woman, I taught myself how to crochet and macrame was a big thing at a certain point in everybody’s lives. When you explore those things, you get a feel for texture, you get a feel for color, for composition, all of that stuff makes a big difference when you actually start your fine art journey,” she explained.
Her mother was an artist and when she died Kamenev felt a pull towards fine art.
“That very September, I took my first watercolour class, and it’s been 27 years since then. I’ve taken many courses and it is really, it’s a struggle. At first, when you don’t know what you’re doing, you think you’re doing okay, until you look back in a couple of years, you realize, yeah, I had a long way to go. It’s a long, hard slog, and people don’t realize how much effort goes into making a fine piece. It takes years and years and years of struggle and throwing things out and frustration and husbands that say, ‘Why do you do this? If it drives you crazy?’ I said, ‘Because eventually I’m going to get there,’ and then it becomes an absolute joy,” she said.
Kamenev has taught art classes in the past and her advice for starting artists is to have the patience to allow yourself to develop your skills.
“It takes time, and it takes real concentrated effort to get there, but you will, even if you think you have no talent, and people tell you, you know, I don’t know what people will tell you, but don’t listen to them. Just keep going. Just really work hard and you’ll get there,” she said.
She welcomes residents to check out this month’s Gwen Fox Gallery show.
“It’s gorgeous. You should come even just to look at it. You know, no obligation. Just come and see,” said Kamenev.
To check out more of Kamenev’s work check her out online at ruth-kamenev.pixels.com
Judy Sutton
Sutton is an acrylic artist whose art greets you with bold colours.
“I paint in a representational style. I love colour, I love motion. And, in my first career, I was a music teacher, and I love to see the harmony and the movement always in what I’m painting. The other thing I always search for is joy, and I try really to make that be a piece of everything I do. I have done sad things, but not often,” said Sutton.
Sutton’s pieces at the gallery this month encompass a wide range of subjects from landscapes to portraits and wildlife.
Her work is very much inspired by her memories and what’s going on in life.
“I have a couple of Ukrainian dancers here, and I did that at the beginning of the Ukrainian war. In fact, I used to teach a Ukrainian bilingual program, not as a Ukrainian teacher, but as a music teacher. And so, I’ve seen a lot of this dancing so it’s the memories and as well as what I happen upon,” she said.
Sutton says that she was always a painter.
“As a music teacher, that’s part of the job. You paint the sets you do all that kind of thing. I only became serious about it after I retired. I began in watercolour painting,” she said.
Her transition from watercolour to acrylic painting came from both practicality and trying to achieve her goals.
“It’s a lot of work carrying around glass paintings because they’re so heavy. Acrylic is easier to transport. But more than that, I love colour so much, and I couldn’t achieve the amount of colour that I desired in watercolour,” Sutton explained.
As a teacher and an artist, Sutton’s best advice for people who want to learn to create art is to practise.
“People don’t understand that about art. They understand it about music. If you’re taking piano lessons practice every day, but most adults coming to art want to be wonderful the first day, and it just isn’t. You learn as you go and change and progress and try different things,” said Sutton.
She invites residents to check out the gallery this month.
“It is absolutely an incredible show. There is great variety, great colour, great harmony, great personal input, and they will love it,” she said.
The artists will be in the gallery for the artists’s reception event on Oct. 3 from 1 to 3 p.m. They will also be in periodically throughout the month. Residents can visit the gallery for free from Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and late on Thursdays until 8 p.m.
Adult Art Classes
The gallery is also inviting residents to sign up for their Adult Beginner Life Drawing classes this month and next. Classes start on Oct. 8 and go until Nov. 26 with a class show taking place on Dec. 1. Artist in Residence Kate Braun will be teaching and the class will cost $200 and include all materials. There are only ten spots available so sign up soon.
