FAMILIAR TERRITORY
Ted Smith
A.Y. Jackson
Central Gallery
March 26 to May 28, 2011
Curated by Jann LM Bailey
Visions of our dynamic land are scored deep in the heart and mind of every Canadian. Artists from coast to coast to coast have captured many of those very Canadian images in their work.
Urban planners, anthropologist, sociologists and cultural geographers alike continue to investigate the curious reasons why certain places hold a special meaning. As Canadians, we have a strong sense of place that shapes our identity and our unique characteristics as a people.
This is further enhanced by the artists who have portrayed our land.
Familiar Territory speaks to both our fierce sense of independence as a nation and the geographical characteristics that make Canada unique and brings together two important Canadian artists inspired by Canada’s natural beauty.
Most notably was A.Y. Jackson, a founding member of the Group of Seven, who embraced the spirit of the true north and sought to develop a bold and independent painting style that continues to represent Canada as a nation to its people. Jackson traveled the country extensively and ventured into the British Columbia interior on many occasions capturing the changing seasons and rugged landscape in his work.
Kamloops Art Gallery has acquired over the years a number of important A.Y. Jackson paintings including an iconic work of Mount Paul, a major geographic feature of the Kamloops horizon.
Local artist Ted Smith is well known for his Kamloops landscapes. Like his teacher and mentor, Jack Shadbolt, Smith is a master of colour and knows how paint can convey the most subtle feelings and how abstract elements, influenced by the natural environment, can change the fundamental nature of a work. Much like the Impressionist Claude Monet, Smith has returned to the same area to paint it again and again, capturing the delicate variations of light on the land, the changing seasons and the mood. He is also known to work the same themes over many decades using new techniques.
Smith’s approach to the familiar territory of landscape painting and his rich investigation of the aesthetics of line, shape, form, space, texture, light and colour, which create visual order within his work, has earned him a reputation as an outstanding painter.
Like the work of A.Y. Jackson, Smith’s work is informed by historic, cultural, and social aspects of place. The feelings and thoughts summoned up by these rich and colourful landscapes is dependant on personal experience, which in this case, is the discovery of the vast and beautiful British Columbia Interior.
Generously sponsored by Radio NL
Installation view of Familiar Territory: Ted Smith and A.Y. Jackson
Photo: Kamloops Art Gallery
