Local artist Rosemarie Stadnyk was surrounded by friends, fans and fellow artists Wednesday evening for a reception featuring her exhibit From Clay to Canvas.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very exciting to see everybody coming and enjoying art,鈥� said the former high school art teacher who is one of 14 tenant artists at the ARC, an artist run centre, in downtown North Battleford.
From Clay to Canvas is a multi media show illustrating how Stadnyk鈥檚 sensibilities as a potter have translated into her recent work as a painter.聽
鈥淚 don鈥檛 do any pottery anymore because I don鈥檛 really have a place to work,鈥� she explained.
There was some pottery on display, however. She said the gallery she was selling to near Calgary had a huge flood two years ago and suffered a great deal of damage.
鈥淭hese were the only pieces left there,鈥� she said, gesturing to several pieces in the window display area, 鈥渟o I brought them back.鈥�
As a professional, marketing potter, she worked with hand-built and wheel-thrown forms. She enjoyed treating the surfaces of her pottery by stamping, impressing and carving to create texture. She also enjoyed working with vibrant colour by layering, sponging and spraying glazes.
Since the studio she and a group of fellow potters used to work out of closed a few years ago, she has been working in other media.
鈥淏asically, I went back to painting, but I hadn鈥檛 painted for 20 years,鈥� she said.
Stadnyk has a university degree in painting, studio art and education and has taken and taught many painting and drawing classes.
鈥淭wo years ago I took a class with my daughter in Calgary on this technique of modelling paste and working in a large format, and I loved doing the painting and I loved what happened with all of the textures and all of the colours.鈥�
She began experimenting in various media.
鈥淲hen I started back to painting there were so many new materials that I hadn鈥檛 used at university,鈥� she said. 鈥淪ome of them were gels, modelling paste, a variety of mediums and I started experimenting with a lot of them.鈥�
Modelling paste became her favourite.
鈥淢ost of all, I was experimenting with modelling paste because it was very close, to me, to working in clay,鈥� said Stadnyk. 鈥淚t is very textural and very heavy and you could work into it, make it do what clay did, basically.鈥�
For From Clay to Canvas, Stadnyk has put together a variety of works, all colourful and textural.
鈥淚 respond very well to textures and to colour, so for this show I tried to put together a lot of different techniques that I use."
From Clay to Canvas was first displayed in the Chapel Gallery as part of the She Sparkles show in October 2014, an exhibition of multi-media and acrylic paintings by Stadnyk and fibre art and quilting by her daughter, Melanie Rudy.
In September 2015, From Clay to Canvas was exhibited in the Courthouse Gallery in Kerrobert and will travel to the Barr Colony Gallery in Lloydminster in January and February of next year and to the Biggar Museum and Gallery in October.
