Art Reveal Magazine Cover

Canadian Artist on Art Reveal Magazine Cover, London UK

On the Cover: Art Reveal Magazine – Canadian Art and the UK go hand in hand, with many Canadian families with roots in the United Kingdom it is only fitting that there would be a keen interest in Canadian art overseas. With the introduction of BC artist and icon, Emily Carr at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in late 2014, touted as ‘Canada’s Van Gogh’, the interest in Canadian Art overseas and specifically in London, has launched a new interest in what is happening in Canadian contemporary art.

In 2015 with the grand re-opening of Canada House, our high commission in the United Kingdom, interest in Canadian contemporary art is heightened. Many historical and contemporary Canadian artists are featured in the galleries in a collection of more than 200 pieces including; paintings by Gordon Smith and Emily Carr, photos by Edward Burtynsky and sculptures by Gathie Falk, among others. The exhibitions at Canada House have continued and have included numerous ‘pop-up’ sized exhibits including contemporary Canadian artists Marion Wagschal from Montreal. “I believe Canada House has the potential to promote a vibrant dialogue with the Canadian art scene abroad and also in within Canada,” said Daisy Desrosiers, director of Battat Contemporary, which collaborated on Wagschal’s exhibition with the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal. “It’s hard for galleries to give our artists as much visibility as they would need abroad. Doing art fairs is expensive and demands specific structures. I do believe we need those initiatives as they can be a way to export Canadian practices and see them engaging with the international art scene. The important thing is to make sure it’s done with care, knowledge and rigour.” Wagschal concurs: “Culture is the way that we can communicate about our country, what it’s like to be here and what we experience.”

Fast-forward to 2018, the art of Brandy Saturley begins to grab attention overseas, thanks in part to the artists’ activity on social media and through her engaging Instagram profile. Saturley’s ‘Pop Canadianisms’ were recently featured in Whitehot Magazine NYC and on the cover of the Society of Canadian Artists 50th Exhibition catalogue, the first exhibition for which the society has printed a catalogue in it’s 50 years of presenting the show in Toronto, Canada.

Featured on the cover and inside the UK magazine, Art Reveal, the artist shares her influences, challenges and future plans for her art career. ~ Leah Gordon, contributor The Art of Brandy Saturley

September 25, 2018

Interview with Whitehot Magazine NYC

NYC, PRESS

Interview With Whitehot Magazine NYC: Confronting the Enormity of the Landscape, in Canadian Art

Typically the ‘art season’ runs September to June, typically my art season as an independent self-representing artist runs the whole year, minus a couple weeks around Christmas holidays. This year I decided to book a month on the Hawaiian Island of Maui in August, and re-connect with nature and nurture my artists’ senses. It was a great adventure and one that will bleed into my work, with many posts about my trip to follow. August was a busy month for me while most of the Art World lay dormant. I finished some paintings, sold some art, showed my work in a Toronto gallery, and spoke in an interview with Whitehot Magazine in New York City about my paintings of the last decade.

Whitehot Magazine is a one of the leading online art magazines in the world, based in NYC, with contributing arts writers and art historians from all over the world, interviewing artists worldwide. In August, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Andrea Bell, a NYC art historian, critic and writer. Based in New York City, Andrea teaches Art History and Criticism at Parsons School of Design. Bell is a contributing writer for Whitehot Magazine and we spoke about; mountains, Canadianisms, pop culture, and the People of Canada Portrait Project.

Excerpt from the article; “In her most recent work, Saturley has turned once again to the landscape, never really having left. Her new, visionary paintings collage different, unexpected elements of Canadiana rendered in her characteristic pop aesthetic. They oscillate between a graphic realism used for Canada’s famous mountain peaks or views of forest lakes, and the abstractness of the colorful, even psychedelic backgrounds. The sincerity of their celebration keeps them from tripping over into kitsch. Instead they are otherworldly and transportive, playful and humorous. Confronting the enormity of the landscape has become a crucial aspect in Canadian identity, and a thread that is woven throughout Saturley’s work. The “Canadianisms” series has already toured in both Edmonton and Calgary, and has garnered the artist notoriety as the voice of Canadian Pop Art.” read full article here.

September 4, 2018

Golden Days at Rideau Hall

Artist Process, People Of Canada Portrait Project

An entrepreneurial mother, and a meritorious Canadian son.

What does it feel like to receive a Meritorious Service Medal from the governor General of Canada, with your mother and family at your side? In creating the most recent portrait for the People of Canada Portrait Project, I had the privilege of expressing the answer to this question, on canvas. How Golden Days at Rideau Hall came to be.

This story began in Empress, Alberta where Alice Rinker was born in 1932. An only child, Alice was observant and curious, which is likely what drove her to explore her options and further her education. She later settled in Medicine Hat where she married, started a family business with her husband and raised seven children. She survived the loss of two husbands and the raising of seven children, no small feat for a woman of such petite stature.

So, put yourself in Alice’s shoes. You are a hard-working, homesteading, entrepreneurial, and proud prairie woman. One of your sons, Aaron Gyorkos, earns a degree in Biology/Oceanography from University of Victoria, joins the Armed Forces and becomes a career Naval Officer. He serves his country all over the world, from combat to commandment of school projects, to project management. You receive word that your son is going to receive a Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General at Rideau Hall in our nations capital city, Ottawa, in Ontario Canada.

Imagine the emotions of this day, between mother and son and family. This photo was taken shortly after this momentous occasion, inside Rideau Hall, and those beaming smiles are undeniable. When I received this photo I was unaware of the occasion, as I reached out to the family for more information and additional photos I came to realize the full picture and weight of the day.

This is where my emotions kick-in and my mind begins to drift from the photos, to the locations expressed in my written interview with the family and the process behind this portrait project. With this project I have been taking the background from the submitted photos and replacing it with a Canadian landscape or location that I feel suits the personalities and emotions of the people in the portrait. I want the portrait to tell a complete story, without words. I’m not just creating portraits of Canadians, I am creating portraits of Canada. Figurative landscapes that will communicate stories for generations to come. I’m not sure if I am always ‘hitting the mark’, but I am working hard to honor the people and their stories, combined with my signature style of expression as a visual artist. I work from intuition mostly and rely on what I ‘feel’ about my subjects.

As with all the portraits in the series I am documenting the creative process behind painting the piece and sourcing unique music, that fits the tone of the piece as the soundtrack. As such I am searching for original music from young or historical Canadian artists.

Watch the creation of, ‘Golden Day’s here:

https://vimeo.com/iconiccanuck/goldendays

This story will continue to unfold on the People of Canada Portrait Project website in the months to come, for now you can enjoy the finished portrait here.

Golden Days – Original acrylic painting on canvas by Brandy Saturley, 2018

July 24, 2018

Painting Inspired by Vimy 100

Artist Process

Vimy Jam – A Serendipitous Painting Inspired by Vimy 100

Serendipity is defined as; the phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for, meaning something beautiful coming together, that was not forced or planned in advance that put smiles on the faces of all affected and in doing so alters future events. This is the story behind a painting inspired by Vimy 100 celebrations in France.

In the past few weeks, serendipity found it’s way into my art, through a portrait project I began over four years ago, thanks to a very enthusiastic Canadian.

The People of Canada Portrait Project is a crowd-sourced, collaborative art project, where I ask Canadians to send in photos of themselves and share a bit about their ‘Canadian’ perspective. Initially this project came with a very ambitious goal of completing 20-25 painted portraits for Canada 150. This could have happened had I not been called on to exhibit solo exhibitions in public galleries in Alberta for Canada150. As the project is completely self-funded, and with me being the only artist painting the portraits, I decided to extend my deadline and allow the project to unfold more authentically. I wanted to take my time to paint these portraits and honour the stories of the people who had taken the time to send me creative snapshots of themselves. A new plan emerged and I included one of the portraits in my travelling exhibitions in 2017, and used these shows as an opportunity to spread the word about the project.

Fast forward to June 2018, now ten portraits towards my goal. I had a window of time in my studio schedule, an opportunity to paint more People of Canada portraits. Feeling the energy of Canada Day coming around the corner I looked through the submitted photos and felt a good story, energy, and message emanating from one photo. Submitted by an enthusiastic piper hailing from Sherwood Park Alberta, RCMP Pipes & Drums ambassador Bridgette Hardy-Crytes. The photo features the piper caught by surprise by the brush of eagle feathers to the head by Jeff Ward, an Indigenous performer with the Sons of Membertou, from Cape Breton. The photo was taken at Vimy 100 celebrations in Vimy, France where the two were brought together by the events of the day and their musical talents.

I began to sketch out the painting and think about creating a unique background to capture the day and place. The painting began, I emailed Bridgette to let her know I was working on the piece and that I had some questions for her to answer, I also asked about the man in the photo and if I could contact him for his perspective on the day.

So, here comes the serendipity. Bridgette tracked down Jeff and spoke with him on the phone after not seeing him since Vimy. The call lead to Jeff sharing a video of the day that had been uploaded to YouTube, and Bridgette sharing this information with me, now I was able to enjoy the mood of the day and story behind the photo, as if I had been there myself. What happened that day the photo was taken was an impromptu ‘jam session’ while Indigenous performers and the RCMP Pipes & Drums band were waiting in the wings to perform. Vimy was a pivotal battle which saw Canada and the Allies, including Mi’kmaq soldiers, win an important battle of World War I. This video shows musical artists collaborating, it conveys the spirit of coming together. A coming together on what once was a battlefield, where many lost their lives. A coming together that symbolizes the spirit of reconciliation, likes and not differences, the spirit of love.

The tone of that day was the tone in my studio, and I listened to the ‘jam session’ on loop as I finished the painting. From my studio on Vancouver Island to Sherwood Park, to Cape Breton, to Vimy Ridge in France; thanks to the Internet and technology our miles apart were erased, allowing me to capture the emotion of the day on canvas.

There will be more to this serendipitous story as I work to compile the answers to my questions from both Bridgette and Jeff.

For now, you can enjoy the painting, a little video of my process in creating the painting.

and this fantastic video of the ‘jam session’ that inspired ‘Vimy Jam’.

It was a celebratory Canada 151 indeed! And a great contrast to my experiences painting Canada over the last decade. A new chapter in this serendipitous story influenced by my travels across Canada. For more about the People of Canada Portrait Project visit http://www.peopleofcanada.ca

July 4, 2018

Re-framing landscape painting

Inspiration

Portrait of A Landscape: re-framing landscape painting

Being a Canadian artist means you grow up with the images of Canada as painted by the Group of Seven. Lawren Harris began re-framing landscape painting in Canadian Art, and Georgia O’ Keeffe treated the landscape similarly in her work depicting landscapes. As a contemporary Canadian Artist paintings landscapes, I find myself influenced by these two painters as I re-frame the landscapes of Canada as portraits and using symbolism and figurative elements.

Throughout the history of art, landscape painting has been a dominant genre. It has served as a medium for artists to capture the beauty of nature and to express their emotions and ideas. However, in the works of Lawren Harris, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Brandy Saturley, we see a re-framing of traditional landscape painting. These painters have taken a new approach to depicting the natural world, one that emphasizes the abstract, the spiritual, and the personal. In this blog post, we will explore the works of these three artists and how they have transformed landscape painting.

Re-framing landscape painting: Lawren Harris geometric landscapes

Mountain Forms, 1926, Lawren Harris

Lawren Harris was a Canadian painter who was a member of the Group of Seven, a group of artists who sought to create a distinctly Canadian art. Harris’s paintings often depict the rugged and wild landscape of the Canadian Shield, but they do so in a way that emphasizes the abstract and the spiritual. Harris’s paintings are characterized by their use of bold colors, geometric shapes, and simplified forms. He sought to capture the essence of the landscape, rather than its physical appearance.

In Harris’s painting “Mountains, North Shore, Lake Superior” (1926), we see the mountains reduced to geometric forms. The colors are bold and intense, with the blues and greens of the mountains contrasting with the warm oranges and yellows of the sky. The painting is not a realistic depiction of the landscape, but rather a representation of its spiritual essence.

Harris’s approach to landscape painting was influenced by his interest in Theosophy, a spiritual movement that sought to reconcile science and religion. Harris believed that through his paintings, he could capture the spiritual essence of the landscape and communicate it to others.

North Shore Lake Superior, 1926, Lawren Harris

The Personal Landscapes of Georgia O’Keeffe

Lake George New York, 1926, Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe was an American painter who is best known for her large-scale paintings of flowers, but she also created many paintings of the desert landscape of New Mexico. O’Keeffe’s paintings of the desert landscape are characterized by their bold colors, simplified forms, and attention to detail. Her paintings are not realistic depictions of the landscape, but rather expressions of her personal relationship with it.

In O’Keeffe’s painting “Black Place III” (1944), we see the desert landscape reduced to its most essential elements. The painting is dominated by a large black form that occupies most of the canvas. This form is not a realistic depiction of any particular feature of the landscape, but rather a representation of its essence. The colors are bold and intense, with the black form contrasting with the warm oranges and yellows of the sky.

O’Keeffe’s approach to landscape painting was influenced by her interest in the psychology of perception. She believed that by simplifying the forms and colors of the landscape, she could create paintings that were more expressive of her personal experience of it.

Pelvis with Distance, 1943, Georgia O’Keeffe

Brandy Saturley: dynamic, expressive, and deeply personal, reflecting her own experiences and perspectives as a Canadian artist.

Brandy Saturley is a contemporary Canadian painter who creates paintings that are inspired by the landscape and culture of Canada. Saturley’s paintings are characterized by their bright colors, simplified forms, and attention to detail. Her paintings are not realistic depictions of the landscape, but rather expressions of her personal relationship with it.

In Saturley’s painting “Balance” (2017), we see a depiction of life perched upon a platter and uplifted by a human hand. The artist suggests the elevation of the spirit through the landscape, and in this case an iceberg with a lone polar bear balanced on the peak. Idealized aurora skies and a background of bold shapes and colours. This piece was presented at the Society of Canadian Artists 50th Anniversary exhibition in Toronto in 2019. The painting graced the cover of the exhibition catalogue, now on file with the National Gallery of Canada, library and archives. The painting is not a realistic depiction of any particular landscape, but rather a representation of the energy and spirit of the Canadian north. The colors are bright and intense, with the white polar bear contrasting with the cool blues, magenta and yellow of the aurora.

Saturley’s approach to landscape painting is influenced by her interest in the culture and mythology of Canada. She believes that by using figurative elements, simplified forms and bright colors, she can create paintings that capture the energy and spirit of the landscape.

Brandy Saturley talks about how these landscape painters have influenced her paintings

Whether the landscapes, forests and farms of southern Ontario as painted by A.J. Casson, or A.Y. Jackson’s Georgian Bay, the grandeur of the rocky mountains as imagined by Lawren Harris, or the raw beauty and Autumn hues of Algonquin park as depicted by the People’s artist, Tom Thomson. The Group of Seven burnished the idea of the Canadian landscape onto our brains, seeping deep into our hearts. I was always drawn to the icy blue palette, idealized forms and light captured in the paintings of Lawren Harris. I was always particularly drawn to his paintings of mountains.

As a Canadian painter looking to create my own distinct artist voice on canvas I began to study the works of the world renowned American painter, Georgia O’Keeffe.

Famous for her depictions of New Mexico landscapes and still life of flowers and skulls, I began to find similarities between the mountain paintings of Harris and the landscape paintings of O’Keeffe. Both with their precisionist style, idealized forms, and feminine palettes; my affinity for the works of these two painters is leading me down a new path of re-framing the Canadian landscape in painting.

A landscape as it is, is something to be appreciated, perhaps captured on camera, but nature is perfection and it has never been my interest to paint the landscape as it appears. I am drawn to the details found within the landscape, the story of the landscape is what interests me most, and it is the story I endeavor to tell on canvas. Our connection to the Earth and to nature, this is something I feel in my bones and want to express on canvas.

With this new series of paintings inspired by the landscape I am taking distinct elements of the landscape, symbols of the land and nature that surrounds and re-framing the elements on canvas, in portrait orientation.

I began 2018 having just returned home form a trip to Maui, Hawaii where I enjoyed the rainforest, landscapes and tracing Georgia O’Keeffe’s footsteps on the island. The first painting of 2018 is an homage to O’Keeffe and inspired by Maui and the Iao Valley.

Re-framing landscape painting

I guess you could say I am building contemporary portraits of the landscape, and I am excited to see what comes next.

Sincerely Yours,

Brandy Saturley

March 2, 2018

Reader’s Digest Our Canada

PRESS

PAINTING CANADA: Featured in Reader’s Digest OUR CANADA Magazine June/July 2016

Originally published May 17, 2016

Art Inspired by Canada – Brandy Saturley featured in Our Canada Magazine July 2016

It has been quite the journey these past five years, exploring Canada. From the most rural to the grandest; cultivating a visual language that is distinctly Canadian. I have toured local museums in the most rural of villages, to our greatest architectural wonders housing our Canadian histories of art, sport and culture. I have hiked back-roads, neighborhoods, mountains, wilderness and through city streets. I have been a passenger on buses, cars, ferries, planes, boats, skytrains, streetcars and subways. You see, I don’t drive, never really wanted to, and am truly happy I do not. I am sure that most everyone else out there is thankful I don’t! I figure I am saving a few lives everyday. Curious is something I have always been, and not driving has served this curiosity in ways I never could have imagined as a teen growing up in a rural community of Canada. I recall reading something about Paul McCartney still taking the subway in New York when he has the chance, and I totally get why. The only true way to understand the beat on the ground and in the people, from all walks and all cultures, is to walk among them, every chance you get. From the finest dram of Scotch to cheap beer and the finest tenderloin to the squeakiest cheese curds on poutine; I am fortunate for all of these experiences. I think it was Queen Victoria, the namesake of my hometown, that said; “Beware of artists. They mix with all classes of society and are therefore most dangerous.” I don’t know about dangerous, but certainly curious enough to warrant no boundaries. This brings me to a little feature that was recently published in Reader’s Digest Our Canada Magazine. This year’s Canada Day issue, now on shelves in Chapters and in subscribers mailboxes across the country, features four lovely pages filled with my words and paintings. I talk about this journey of the past five years and the resulting art inspired by these adventures. The June/July 2016 issue is available on newsstands and here. Keep on exploring and creating; vive le Canada! ~ Brandy Saturley

People of Canada Portrait Project – Our Canada Magazine 2016

November 3, 2017

Canada150 Art Exhibitions

Art Opening

Canada150 Art Exhibitions: ‘CANADIANISMS’ opens at Okotoks Art Gallery

Originally published June 15, 2017

Calgary Artist Gordon Milne with Victoria Artist Brandy Saturley at the opening of Saturley’s ‘Canadianisms’ at Okotoks Art Gallery, June 2017. | photo: Penny Rogers

A celebratory and intimate art opening at Okotoks Art Gallery on June 9. Housed inside an old CP Railway station, CANADIANISMS brought a patriotic and vibrant vibe to the main gallery just in time for Canada150 celebrations. A big thank you to the town of Okotoks and Okotoks Culture and Heritage, as well as the gallery staff for producing a spirited event. This past weekend also included an unveiling of the Canada150 Community Mosaic and the OAG members show inspired by the railway, From Cow-Catcher to Caboose.