|
| |
April 19 – June 2, 2002
"As
I see it painting and religious experiences are the same thing, and what we are
all searching for is the understanding and realization of infinity."
Ben
Nicholsen
Painter
|
For
more than half a century, Percival Ritchie has painted the landscape of
the Okanagan Valley and through her work has explored her relationship to
this special place. Ritchie’s landscapes are painted from memory and,
though recognizable, depict more what she feels than what she sees.
The
artist’s reduced palette gives her landscapes a muted, translucent
quality, particularly in the figures through whom you can see the
environment. “I really believe in the power of the understatement,”
explains Ritchie, “to paint without any embellishments…without
adjectives.” |
Saskatchewan
2, 2001 oil on canvas 62 x 117cm |
|
The
Kelowna Art Gallery exhibition features a selection of landscape paintings
and a small number of life drawings produced from 1939 to 2002. The
landscapes are of the Okanagan as well as other regions to which the
artist has traveled, including other parts of British Columbia,
Saskatchewan, Ireland, Scotland and Quebec, her birthplace.
Ritchie
describes many sites as spiritual and that is reflected in her art. One
example is her Queen Charlotte Islands work. “I felt Emily Carr
breathing down my neck because it was her country – she was the one who
painted it.” Ritchie is also able to appreciate the deep cultural
rhythms of the region. “I felt as if I was trespassing, because it
belongs to the natives.” |
Charlie and Gavin, c.
1997 oil on linen 96 x 91cm |
|
Also on
display will be five works from other artists who have influenced Ritchie
through the years. They are from her own collection and include Maurice
Cullen (1866-1934), Clarence Gagnon (1881-1942), Robert Pilot (1898-1967),
Anne Savage (1896-1971) and Edwin Holgate (1892-1977).
Percival
Ritchie was born in 1917 in Point-au-Pic, Quebec. She moved to Naramata in
the mid-1950s with her husband Frederick and their children. The Okanagan
Valley was not exactly wilderness, but pioneering when compared to the
cosmopolitan, culturally-active Montreal where she studied and exhibited
from 1926 to the early 1950s. Removed
from this milieu, Ritchie developed her own vision – work that is a
purposeful form of regionality. |
End of Winter, 1995 oil on
linen 60 x 100cm |
Exhibition
Images
 
 
|
