Artistic Appreciation for “The Beauty of Life” Via Digital Painting of Flower Photographs: Free Exhibition Runs to June 20, 2014

Photo Credit: Elaine Waisglass: The Beauty of Life Exhibition

First Canadian Place

Presents

Elaine Waisglass: The Beauty of Life Exhibition

Free Admission

Continues to June 20, 2014

First Canadian Place Gallery
First Canadian Place
100 King Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Telephone: 416-862-8138

Please note: The First Canadian Place Gallery is open from 11 AM – 3 PM, Monday to Friday. Hours of operations are subject to change due to private events. For more information, please contact the Arts & Events office at: 416-862-6290.

The Beauty of Life is a solo exhibition of new work by Elaine Waisglass who is a Toronto based photographer, artist and videographer.

She uses digital painting techniques of a large, digital printer to create beautiful, painterly photographs of her garden flowers.

“The imagery hovers between the real and the super-real, with each picture perceivable as either or both a painting and a photograph.”

Waisglass expresses her artistic appreciation for the beauty of life in her “large images of flowers set in vases, portrayed with richly intense colors that conjure up and celebrate the joyful vitality of the blossoms opening according to their season, from early frost to fall.”

She describes her artistic inspiration, photographic practices and skillful use of contemporary high tech as follows.

“This photography series, The Beauty of Life, takes a backward look through centuries of art history….The essential themes of this body of work include the inherent beauty within the geometry of nature and the use of natural proportion.

Among the artists who inspired this work is Claude Monet, whose water lily paintings celebrate the beauty of the flowers that grew in his garden. Monet’s paintings inspired me to consider taking a profound look at the flowers growing in my own garden – their complex geometrical structure, their energy vibration that all living things share.

Other outstanding figures from art history with a strong influence on The Beauty of Life include 19th century art critic John Ruskin and the philosophic leader of the PreRaphaelite Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris. Ruskin wrote “The most beautiful lines derive from nature, and he urged artists to create paintings that recall photographic detail, and photographs that recall paintings….

My photographs are painterly and each of the still life pictures features a vase with cut flowers, implying a literary reference to the movement’s central theme, as the very act of cutting beautiful flowers begins their inevitable death….

Each photograph begins with a walk through the garden, scissors and a vase in hand, in search of the most beautiful blooms. Photographing often takes place outdoors in natural light, and if the weather cooperates, with the sky acting as the best possible reflector of light. My intention is to capture the light that defines the shape and textures of the flowers.

So as not to leave the impression that The Beauty of Life is all about art history lessons, it should be mentioned that the photographs also embrace contemporary high tech. I do my own printing, working with digital computer-generated print equipment. Controlling the flow of ink and the colors is an important part of the creation of these photographs, giving them a more painterly aspect. The pigment, ink, and Arches watercolor paper are archival and acid free. Each of the works is a limited edition of 12 prints.”

Elaine Waisglass
http://elainewaisglass.com/series.php?id=56