{"id":25632,"date":"2024-08-07T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T16:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25632"},"modified":"2024-07-30T12:34:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T19:34:47","slug":"reflections-art-exhibit-catalyzes-contemplation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/08\/07\/reflections-art-exhibit-catalyzes-contemplation\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections<\/em> art exhibit catalyzes contemplation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The meditative and moody ocean is a subject of mystery and wonder\u2014a vast expanse of seemingly endless and infinitely captivating movement, made up of the main ingredient of life. Local artist Judy McLaren is deeply interested in the ocean and its natural features, and the reflective qualities of these bodies of water, and it\u2019s all on display at her new exhibit, Reflections<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called it Reflections<\/i> because I thought every painting has a reflection element in it,\u201d she says, \u201cand it has a double meaning\u2014it\u2019s a time for me to reflect on my life and on life in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s latest collection of seascape paintings have been a work in progress since February. After being contacted by Fortune Gallery owner Alison Trembath regarding some smaller acrylic seascapes she had been working on, McLaren decided to continue this theme\u2014but bigger. For the work in this exhibit, McLaren started from a photograph of ocean scenes from Vancouver Island, but the final product is completely different, as she quickly departed from literal representation and dove into her own expression.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Artist Judy McLaren with her work (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe structure is there, but it\u2019s all subservient to my interpretation and my feeling,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

McLaren has been painting since she was young, when her parents gave her a set of oil paints; her paintings are a testament to her commitment in creating and expressing the beauty of nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just have to be disciplined about it. I have always been someone who wants to produce something creative every day, and that\u2019s as long as I can remember,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re put on the planet to make the world a little bit more beautiful, and we have to work at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren has always had a deep relationship with the ocean and natural environments (\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that you can look at forever and never quite understand,\u201d she says). She spends a great deal of her time studying the sea and its subtle yet tangible relationships. Through painting ocean scenes, she expresses the eternal yet mutable way of nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ever-changing, and always the same,\u201d she says. \u201cYou know what to expect, but you\u2019re always surprised. The light is always a little bit different, the sky\u2019s always different, and that I just find absolutely wonderful. It\u2019s a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through her work, McLaren also expresses the interconnectedness of nature, as well as its boundlessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think more recently my work has developed into something that kind of wants to unify things,\u201d she says. \u201cIt sometimes does away with edges and boundaries, and sees the world in terms of attachment. Sea and sky are one and the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her meditative moments by the oceanside are an internal journey as well as external\u2014for McLaren, the ocean is her refuge and comfort, as she\u2019s forged a close and strong connection with the features of the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very, very attached to this part of the world,\u201d she says. \u201cI absolutely love the shore. That\u2019s where I go when I need to contemplate things and absorb the joy of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her diagnosis of stage four breast cancer, McLaren has gained a deeper appreciation of life, seeing each day as a gift and an opportunity to be more free. Her artwork has been affected by this paradigm shift as well, especially in the way she approaches her brushwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy with the most recent work I\u2019ve done. It\u2019s more me than anything I\u2019ve done before, because I just don\u2019t give a damn,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve got a limited time left here on the planet, so I\u2019m just going to paint the way I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflections
\n<\/i>Until Sunday, August 18
\nFortune Gallery
\nfortunegallery.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The meditative and moody ocean is a subject of mystery and wonder\u2014a vast expanse of seemingly endless and infinitely captivating movement, made up of the main ingredient of life. Local artist Judy McLaren is deeply interested in the ocean and its natural features, and the reflective qualities of these bodies of water, and it\u2019s all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-august-7-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25634,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25632\/revisions\/25634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}