Beginning October 28 Gallery ArtPlus will feature our Fall exhibition, Fall Expressions. This exhibit will feature the work of David Alexander, Maura Joy Lustig, Mile Murtanovski and Giancarlo Piccin. All are welcome to join us for the opening reception, Thursday November 4th. Spend your evening with Gallery ArtPlus and meet our featured artists.
Read more about our featured artist
David Alexander is an active member of the co-operative Gallery One-Twenty-One in Belleville. A Drawing & Painting graduate of the Ontario College of Art (1970) and the University of Toronto, David originally hails from Windor, Ontario. For several years he was a participating artist fellow of the Patmos Workshop and Gallery, and later the Alpha Gallery, exhibiting throughout southern Ontario. Extensive world travel has taken him to many locations around the globe. His hand-painted cards have been presented to Pope John Paul II and religious leaders of both the Jewish and Muslim faiths in Jerusalem. David works in egg tempera, charcoal, encaustic and oil. He resides and teaches art in Belleville.
Maura Joy Lustig is an avid artist, Maura finds inspiration all around her in her hometown of Peterborough, Ontario, a beautiful land of lakes, rivers and rolling hills, bordering on the southern tip of the Canadian Shield. Maura's passion for health, travel, painting, reading, and writing now meld into her two careers - painting and serving others as a success and wellness coach. The two intertwine, as her clients find inspiration in her art and their stories feed her to bring new life to her paintings. As an artist, writer, coach and speaker, she inspires, motivates and empowers others to reignite their passion, connect it successfully with purpose, and find balance and pleasure in life.
Artist Statement
"My work is an attempt to share my profound appreciation for the natural world. I use a camera to record moments of the extraordinary within the ordinary. The images later serve as reference for paintings which invite viewers to align themselves with nature, peace and beauty; opening the doors for reflection and connection to spirit.
The act of observing and contemplating nature inspires me and grounds me in the present moment. I trust that inspiration will manifest itself physically through me, allowing me to express my experience on canvas in a way that acts as a metaphor and speaks universally to those who view my art.
I create vibrant, colourful, abstract and figurative paintings using an ancient technique call encaustic. I use only natural elements, painting on braced wooden canvases with pure beeswax and high grade encaustic paints and I love the way the wax flows and creates new patterns and images. The translucent quality of the fragrant beeswax and resin allows light to penetrate the layers and radiate outwardly so that the paintings appear to glow and give energy."
Mile Murtanovski is a charming cliche and knows it, in that Mile began painting early in life - more than 20 years ago now - and chose watercolour for his favorite medium as a way of defying a teacher who said it would prove too challenging. He found inspiration in greats Jon J. Muth, Bill Sienkiewicz, John Singer Sargent, and his next and most influential art teacher, watercolourist Anthony J Batten. What began with figurative pieces, which has remained a life - long love, has coloured over the lines into lush oils and sparse ink of varied subject matter.
Whatever the content, a theme runs through Mile's body of work: the exploration of light and dark. Very literally, his paintings convey emotional energy through the precise and careful rendering of light. He's captured the beauty of soft shadows, of glowing reflections, of the way morning sun hits a bird feather or moonlight is absorbed into brick. But no study of light is complete without investigating the unlit - and it's there where Mile departs from the literal. His comic book series titled Weak Species, addresses the darker side of human habits and fears in elemental black and white.
Mile's held numerous solo and group exhibitions in galleries ranging from Scarborough's Cedar Ridge Gallery to the Outdoor Art Exhibition in downtown Toronto. He also finds joy in his commercial practice, creating architectural renderings, theatre posters and advertising illustrations. And when he's not drawing or painting, you may find Mile teaching a class in stilt walking. In March 2010 he left the big city behind to start Small Pond Arts with his wife, writer Krista Dalby, in Ontario's beautiful Prince Edward County.
Giancarlo Piccin sold his first painting to the VP of The Toronto Dominion Bank. Piccin was accepted into Ontario College of Art at the age of eighteen. During his first year, he found himself behind the other students due to his lack of formal training and his, comparatively, young age but after studying under the likes of Fred Hagan, Peter Mau, Mario Polidori and John Inglis, he soon found his stride. After graduating in 1981, he was accepted into the Fine Art program at York University but he decided to decline the invitation to continue working solely on his art. During this time he had several shows and travelled to Jamaica and Mexico. Giancarlo's freelanced work in illustration and continued work on his fine art lead to an exhibition of his work at the Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery. After extended travels to Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica, he returned home to take a full - time job as a graphic designer to earn enough money for more travel.
On a trip to Italy to visit family, Piccin wanted to spend some time in Venice: "I planned a trip with a cousin who lived nearby. A local offered to show us around. He claimed that it would be possible to see Venice in "una giornata" 'one day' ". Resulting in a successful exhibition - "A Day in Venice", based entirely upon what he saw that day. "I've always had a soft spot for the Italian High Renaissance. It may be the fact that I'm a Canadian of Italian heritage that draws me toward this period or because I find the impeccable craftsmanship and aesthetic quality of their work appealing." Piccin's artistic direction changed following that trip to Italy; his style now reflects a maturity that explores the possibilities of architecture or people as subject matter. By using minimal brush strokes on successive layers, I encourage the viewer to connect the missing links to form a complete image. Occassionally, I include found objects to further explore this relationship."
Giancarlo believes the challenge for any contemporary artist is to see the world through new eyes. "It is important to me that an artist's work reflects his/her time. Whether it is through the use of contemporary themes, techniques and/ or mediums." The challenge is to present your generation with a new vision...equipped with a good understanding of the past and present art scene, Piccin continues to try and meet this challenge in an effort to represent his generation. Piccin, now and internationally collected artist, resides in the beautiful Heart Lake area of Brampton with his wife and son.
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