Two wildly contrasting shows fill the Arts Centre with images that are entertaining from artists Nadina Tandy and Donna Balma and oil paintings that are sublime from Melissa Tulloch. They compel a visit to the gallery while the show is on; it opened July 8 and runs to July 30.
Nadina Tandy has a great sense of humour to match Donna Balma’s terrific imagination. Over the winter the two artists played a parlour game called Exquisite Corpses. One artist draws, paints, scratches or collages an image on one-third of a piece of paper, covers it, leaving a clue at the bottom showing the colour or line that she has used. She sends it through snail mail, often with doodles or comments on the envelope. (The envelopes are also on display for this show.)
The artist who receives the paper fills in the middle part of the image, covers it and sends it back again, leaving a hint once more of what it might be so the first artist can use the bottom third of the paper.
Sometimes the three sections are divided into head, torso and legs, perhaps in a strange mixture of human and animal, but sometimes they turn up other bizarre images such as the devil’s doughnuts, a product for reducing odour in the toilet bowl. A few completed “corpses” are risqué and may repel some viewers – or make them laugh.
It was just for fun, said Tandy at the show’s opening. They didn’t expect it would turn into a show, but they make no apologies – it’s simply an unusual, unedited body of work.
Balma is an innovative and prolific Canadian artist and is a member of the West Coast Surrealist Group. Her work is profoundly affected by nature and her internal vision. She has established herself as an imaginative artist whose work has been variously described as fantasy, singular, outsider, visionary, naive, classical, folk, cosmic pop and surreal.
As a child, Tandy used to draw on every surface she could find – inside book jackets, on door jambs, the underside of tables – in a constant urge to make her internal world visible. She describes it as “a forceful sensitivity.” Her images are curious, bordering on the surreal, and in this way the two artists are complementary.
On the other side of the gallery is the work of Melissa Tulloch, a prolific Pender Harbour artist who paints in oils. Her show, Things with Wings, is not just about angels although that is implied in the portraits of ethereal young women. Waiting for Spring is the title of one such beauty who wears a telling look of resignation as she sits amid the snow. The viewer wants to reach out and comfort the woman, so expressive is her face. Other portraits are of figures who could be humans though they happen to have wings, or they could be fairies or nymphs. Tulloch also paints birds, the kind she sees in her garden, and who knows? those could be angels in disguise, too.
Her technique is exceptional in a classical style. She has worked as an artist for the past 32 years in pursuits that range from tattoos to album covers. Her goal “is for people to experience the human form in a fanciful way,” while “showcasing the birds and butterflies” that visit her yard.
There will be a Meet the Artist event on Saturday, July 15 at 1 p.m., including both a demonstration by Donna Balma and a discussion with the other artists. The Sunshine Coast Arts Centre is at the corner of Trail and Medusa in Sechelt.
