The Art Gallery of Swift Current is presenting until October 8 the work of three Saskatchewan artists in joint exhibitions entitled "Blind Contour" with Brandan Doty and Sarah Jane Holtom and "Entangled" with Twyla Exner.
"Blind Contour" involves the use of a drawing class exercise used to co-ordinate the movements of the hand and the eye and to teach the student to see more deeply when they draw. Instead of looking back and forth from subject to drawing surface, the artist looks only at the subject not at the paper and rarely takes the pencil from the paper. Slowly following the contours of the object with the eye , the hand traces on the paper at the same slow speed what the eye sees. Contour drawings typically feature omissions and exaggerations that result from trying to get the hand and the eye to work together without looking at the result.
Brandan Doty and Sarah Jane Holtom both use contour drawing as their starting point with very different results. Doty documents the movement of the hockey puck with his oil stick during a hockey game, not looking at what he is doing and not lifting the stick from the paper. The result is an almost solid mass of lines that trace the apparent movement of the puck. Holtom's use of contour drawing results in a series of sensitive portraits of her old dog Penny. These drawings are surprising in their accuracy considering that the artist looks at the paper only when repositioning the pencil for a new line.
Twyla Exner in her exhibition "Entangled" uses salvaged electronic components such as colored electrical wire and computer monitors to simulate biological forms. She exploits the multi-colors of the wire, weaving it into interpretations of plant life, viruses, bacteria and internal organs that suggest the cybernetic.
Both of these unusual exhibitions can be viewed at the Art Gallery of Swift Current until October 8.
Meet artist Twyla Exner at the Coffeehouse evening September 30, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m as part of Culture Days. Admission is free with cash bar and complimentary coffee and hors d'oeuvres.
