Nottawa painter shows area landscapes in first solo show
Kara McIntosh is putting herself Out There with her first solo exhibition of paintings.
She is showing a body of oil paintings, mostly Clearview Township landscapes and a couple of abstracts.
She said she is inspired by the landscapes that surround her and her connection to the land.
“I’m a new painter so it seems like a natural place to start exploring with paint,” said McIntosh, who lives near Nottawa.
She is attracted to the sky, which plays predominantly in her paintings.
To get a luminescent sky, McIntosh starts with a layer of bright paint and then builds the blue sky on top, allowing the colour underneath to peek through.
While there may be parts of her compositions that are busy and have a lot of colour, there is always a part that is quiet and calm.
“I feel like I am looking for calm through my paintbrush,” said McIntosh.
The show’s title, Out There, has a dual meaning in that her subject matter is outdoors and also recognizing the vulnerability in showing art for the first time.
McIntosh said although she has been painting for about a decade, she really started focusing on the craft two years ago and last summer she rented studio space at The Tremont in Collingwood.
“It’s nice to have other people doing creative things nearby and we often bounce ideas off of each other and give each other feedback,” said McIntosh. “Especially since I don’t have a formal art education, I realized that my process would be better served to be around other creative people.”
The opening reception for Out There is Saturday, Feb. 18 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Curiosity House Books in Creemore, located at 178 Mill St. The show runs until March 4.
Although this is McIntosh’s first solo show, her work has been exhibited at The Ojibway Club Art Show, The Creemore Festival of the Arts, and The Taylor Statten Camping Bursary Fund Art Show. She has an upcoming show, Observations, with painter Debbie Farquharson at The Peter McKendrick Community Gallery at the Artscape Wychwood Barns in Toronto April 21-23, 2017.
