This month the Chapel Gallery in North Battleford will be taking visitors on a reflective study of the wonders of nature.
The display is called Meditations, and features the work of artist Jean E. Sonmor of Wolseley. Sonmor was on hand for a gallery reception Friday night, July 8 to show off her art and meet those in attendance. However, her work has already been on display at the gallery since June 20.
The paintings deal with familiar subject matter, focusing on the ecology of the planet - whether it's bones or feathers, rocks, shells, plants and insects - Sonmor presenting her subjects in layers on the canvas.
In speaking to the Regional Optimist she gave an idea on what people can expect to see.
"Each piece is my journey, focuses on a particular aspect of the earth, the ground, we walk on," said Sonmor. "I usually begin the first layer on my paintings with the ocean, the seabed that was here in ancient times. And then I work up. I often put seashells in or fossils, and I just start layering the paint. Then I'll cover that over and put other aspects that might be buried under the ground and just let go. And then I come to the surface."
Some of the paintings show some fossils that have come to the surface. One features bovine bones that Sonmor said she found in a field. Another has poppies that were growing in her garden.
She gets her inspiration from her rural roots in Wolseley.
"I live in a small town that is very close to the rural landscape," said Sonmor, who says she is inspired by the things she sees or might pick up on the way home while walking.
Sonmor believes the natural world has providing a lot of the inspiration for the engineering and structural design out there.
"If you look at the way things are made, it's really quite brilliant, and I think probably we've all been inspired by natural things. I just try to do it more consciously and paint it."
There isn't a lot of meticulous planning that goes into the painting, she says - her painting is a more "instinctual" type of painting.
Painting is something Sonmor has done all her life, she says. She has worked in both paint and fabric, including 14 years as a fabric artist creating art clothing and three-dimensional works. But she didn't start to show off her work until she started painting full-time in the 1990s, when she was part of a show in the Chapel Gallery called "Inspired by the Land". That was the first serious showing of her work, she said.
The name of this show is "Meditations" because, "I am a rather contemplative person and my painting practise is very meditative. Each piece of my work takes a long time to do, it takes an intensive study of what I'm painting," said Sonmor.
"It's just a meditative practise that I have and also a spiritual practise."
People still have plenty of time to see the display at the Chapel Gallery, as the display runs to Aug. 30.
