Stop by May 5 to 30 to see work by artists Ida MacKenzie, Jo Smoley, Winona Kling, and Judy Sutton
Four artists and friends from our region have teamed up as the ARTists4 for a fun springtime exhibit at the Gwen Fox Gallery, on until May 30.
The group consists of Winona Kling, Ida MacKenzie, Jo Smoley, and Judy Sutton, who allowed their personalities and art styles to mix this month at the gallery.
The best time to catch all four artists at the gallery together is at the artists’ reception on May 9 from 1 to 3 p.m.
The Gwen Fox Gallery is open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, and visiting is free to all.
Additionally, the Gwen Fox Gallery will be hosting free painting classes for kids aged 7 to 12 years old. Sharon Routley will be teaching two sessions of six classes. The first will be from May 20 to June 24, and the second from July 8 to August 12. To register for either of these sessions or to ask additional questions, contact Routley at ser523@hotmail.com. These classes will likely fill up quickly, so it’s advisable to register early.
Winona (Noni) Kling
Winona (Noni) Kling
Kling is a mixed media artist who is inspired by the prairies and you can’t miss the expression that she puts into her pieces.
“I do a lot of different techniques. (I use) watercolour primarily, acrylic, collage, printmaking, and I have done Chinese painting on rice paper. I’ve done a lot of different things, so there’s a lot of variety in my work. But I’m a prairie girl, so a lot of my works come from what I see around me – canola fields in the summer, and going to the Whiteshell, and we spent a lot of time at Minaki, just across the border in Ontario, so lots of granite and gorgeous lakes,” she said.
Kling explained that she’s very inspired by wild spaces.
“(I’m inspired by) nature primarily. I want people to feel peace or happiness or remember a moment that was special to them when they look at my work,” she said.
She explained that her journey as an artist started as a child.
“My mother was very creative and really fostered that with me. I started doing watercolour for some of my courses in university, and so I’ve been doing watercolour for 40-some years, and it’s just been a learning process the whole time. I love the creativity that this outlet provides me,” she said.
Kling is from East St. Paul and is a fairly recent addition to the Gwen Fox Gallery. She came because, her friends who are artists are members.
“We have this little group called Artists4 who have been exhibiting for about the past five or six years, maybe more. We started out as a group for the centennial year in East St. Paul. Judy phoned me and said we should do something for the centennial year. So we did. We started three endeavours. One was a studio tour. The other was (that) we hang work in the municipal hall in East St. Paul, and the third one was we get together twice a month at the seniors’ building in East St. Paul and paint. Everyone is welcome. We have people popping in, and they may not be doing painting per se, but they do crafts, or they do painting on rocks. They do all sorts of things,” she said.
It was thanks to the influence of the other members of Artists4 that Kling joined the gallery, and now we get to experience all of their art, which is only enhanced by the group’s friendship.
“I think we inspire each other and encourage each other, and we’re friends. We have a good time together. Even during COVID, we managed to stay in touch,” she said.
Kling’s advice to artists just starting out on their art journey is to give yourself permission to find the time.
“Art is one of the things that gets pushed aside in our busy lives, and I think you have to give yourself permission to stick with it. And, even if you can’t have time to paint, then think about it. Think about ‘where’s the shadows on this tree? Where’s the light hitting it?’ Go to art galleries and see what other people are doing, and figure out how they made their composition, or what the colour blending is, or any of those sorts of things. Think about it. It trains your brain,” she said.
Kling hopes that residents take the time to check out the exhibit this month.
“It’ll be a really wonderful show. You’ll enjoy yourself,” she said.
Ida MacKenzie
Jo Smoley
MacKenzie is a painter, potter, and wood carver who creates in many mediums, including watercolour, pastels, acrylics, and scratch art. This month you won’t miss her very expressive and colourful paintings. If you were to see her art in the gallery, it stands out, and you can’t miss the Group of Seven influence that she channels when she creates her unique pieces.
“I do love forests and greenery in nature and that kind of thing,” she explained.
MacKenzie says that her art is inspired by finding the colour in nature
“(I enjoy) colours, and especially fall colours, bare trees and the purples and the golds and the greens and weeds in the ditch. I love weeds,” she said.
She’s also inspired by summers spent at a remote cabin in Northern Ontario.
Her first memories of creating art are from when she was a child.
“When I was 12 years old, my parents sent me to Mrs. Benson, who had a studio in her basement, and taught me how to do oils. And, I’ve just painted ever since. I painted, and then I went from painting to potting, and I ran a pottery business for 20 years and serviced 15 to 20 stores in Winnipeg and around. Then I went to woodcarving. Those are my birds out there, and as soon as I retired, I went back to painting,” said MacKenzie
She explained that when she retired, she took a trip to Spain with an art teacher and that really reinvigorated her love of painting.
MacKenzie is an artist who lives in Oakbank, but she’s been part of the Gwen Fox Gallery for many years.
She attributes her wanting to continue to be an artist at the gallery for a decade or so to how amazing and welcoming the people at the gallery are.
As an artist who has struck out into new adventures and new mediums a few times in her art career, her advice for artists starting is to just go for it.
“Don’t be afraid to just paint or do whatever, create the thing that you want to do. I’m always creating, and if it’s not with paint, it’s with cloth or something else. Just keep going and never give up if that’s what you want. It’s so good for you when you’re older to have something to fall back on,” said MacKenzie.
She hopes that people stop by the gallery this month.
“We four have painted together now for a while, and we blend well together, so it’s going to be a good show,” said MacKenzie.
Jo Smoley
Judy Sutton
Smoley is a multi-media artist who chooses the medium she uses depending on what the painting needs.
“In the summertime, it’s watercolour, and I love the lightness of it and the flow of the paint. In winter, it’s mostly acrylics, but I love palette knife with oil and cold wax. It’s my latest. It just takes a long time to dry, and I’m impatient, and so I want to get back in on it, and I’ve got to wait for oil, so I go back to acrylic,” she explained.
Her art is generally worked in an impressionist style, but she finds that the art takes on its own life as she creates it.
“What I figure I’m going to be painting never is what the end result is. The end result is me and the canvas sort of having a struggle between the two, deciding what to keep, what to let go,” she explained.
Smoley said that she’s working her way towards abstract art, but that she keeps finding nature in her pieces. She pulls out trees and flowers and creates whole ecosystems that are tangled together.
Inspiration for her art naturally comes from nature.
“I love close-ups of all the little shrubs and little vines and leaves on the ground. And I love getting zoomed in on things. And usually I find trees and everything I can start with just splashes of paint, and I will pull out a landscape in its own way,” she said.
Smoley comes from a fairly artistic family, so creativity was around her growing up.
“My mother was an artist. I have an aunt in Ottawa who is an artist and very successful. My father was very creative, and I helped him renovate our home. I built my own furniture with him for my bedroom. So I had a lot of encouragement, and they really cheered me on, and my husband and kids now cheer me on. So, I’ve had a lot of support when I work in art,” said Smoley.
After growing up with art around her, which included making fashionable clothing for paper dolls, she grew up and moved on to taking classes with her husband.
“I went to sketching and did model sketching. But then when the children came, I was more teaching creativity to them, so we were out camping all summer, and they would be having paints out,” she explained.
Once her children no longer needed her help, she decided to take some watercolour classes before moving on to acrylics, and she’s been painting ever since.
Smoley lives in East St. Paul and has been an artist with the Gwen Fox Gallery for about eight years or so. She enjoys being part of the gallery’s membership.
“This community is so supportive. This gallery is so incredible. There’s such wonderful people here, and they’re so positive and encouraging. And I think we’re expanding and growing into something better yet,” she explained.
Smoley’s advice to artists who are just starting is to treat it like learning any new skill.
“It’s just like taking on a musical instrument. The more you practice, the better you’re going to get. And your goal is to find your own signature in art, so that when people come into an art gallery and see your work, they will recognize you. I think that’s what an artist should work for, but it’s practice, practice, practice. And, don’t over criticize yourself because artists are the worst at criticizing their own work. Sometimes, when you tuck a piece away and bring it out a week later, you find the sunshine in it,” she said.
Smoley hopes to see you at the gallery this month.
“I think we work really well together. In our work, there’s many stories being told, but they all cooperate with each other, and it’s a joyful show,” she said.
Judy Sutton
A fresh breath of spring air is the best way to describe Sutton’s work at the gallery this month, which includes wildlife, some with cute baby animals, and even the occasional child.
“My goal in everything I brought today was spring, so I painted everything that brings me particular joy in springtime — baby animals, young children who are curious and ready to do whatever comes their way, and that brilliant green of springtime when you’re falling in love,” she said.
She let the season completely inspire her showing at the gallery this month.
“I think that we all feel that way about spring, and it’s here at last. We’ve been waiting for a long time, so that’s why I chose it as a theme,” Sutton explained.
Her art hasn’t always been visual, but Sutton has always been a creative person.
“I’ve always done art in my work. I was a music teacher, and I actually didn’t have time to be serious about (visual art) until I retired. I’ve had a good, long chance to learn how to paint and how to do things properly. I also was, for quite a long time, 12 years, I think, the Winnipeg representative for an art training company that was based in Calgary, and we did two three day workshops here a year for them. So, of course, I attended all of these with world famous artists, and that was a big part of my evolution,” said Sutton.
Sutton is an East St. Paul artist, and she’s been part of the gallery’s community for over 20 years.
“It’s such a wonderful community. I absolutely adore it, and that’s part of the reason for being part of anything. Making art is a pretty solitary affair most of the time. So we have to reach out and find community. And, this is a good community to belong to,” she said.
Sutton’s advice for artists just starting out on their art journey is to just paint.
“Do it. Paint and paint and paint. People understand practice in music. You take piano lessons, but you have to practice. Everybody understands that, but adults look at art differently. They say, ‘I tried it once, and I couldn’t do it, so I’m never doing it again.’ And, the fact is, like every other activity, you have to practice every day,” she said.
Sutton invites residents to check out the ARTists4 show, on until May 30.
“It’s a wonderful show. This group of artists has shown together (in) many other places. We like working together. We think our things complement each other, and it’ll be a joyous experience, and everybody should come,” she said.
You can follow along with the Artists4 online on Facebook at www.facebook.com and Instagram at www.instagram.com/artists.four/reels. You can also check out the Gwen Fox Gallery online at www.facebook.com and www.instagram.com/gwenfoxgalleryofficial.
