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Lyghtesome Gallery's annual exhibit of recent work by Linda Johns opens on Tuesday, June lst at the gallery on the east end of Main Street, Antigonish. The show is entitled "From a Woodland Studio" and features acrylic paintings on paper and sculpture in clay, whalebone and soapstone, all produced within the last year by nationally known artist, writer and naturalist Linda Johns, a resident of James River, Antigonish County. This visionary artist, whose unique life and artwork have been featured on CBC and Discovery Channel documentaries, explores the enduring invisible forces at work within the visible world, integrating archetypal symbolism with her knowledge and sensitivity to the energies and life-forms of nature.
This body of recent work, as the title of the show suggests, exemplifies the importance of the natural world as the primary source of inspiration for Linda Johns' life and work.
A keen and vigilant observer , Johns records daily both in drawing and in writing, impressions and information she gains from her interactions with the surrounding landscape, with wild creatures, with plant forms, with weather, and with the seasons. From these extensive notebook chronicles, come finished ideas for paintings and episodes to bring to her written narratives. Whether wind off a Newfoundland cliff face, sculpted sandstone formations in the Minas Basis, or daily interactions at home with a Japanese quail, Linda Johns meticulously records what she sees, hears, and feels, then translates the experience through her own unique creative voice.
Linda Johns writes about this body of work:
"All around us, familiarity masks mystery. We see a stark, dead tree standing isolated in silvery splendour. But what mysterious forces created the twisting thrusts of the trunk, the whorled texture, the rigid branches pointing like weather vanes?
These works attempt to mingle the known with the unknown - visible hills and driftwood with invisible whale energies; trees and rocks with the mysterious shaping ans surging of tides and winds.
And throughout everything flows the winged spirit that unites us all."
The title of Linda Johns' 1999 show is derived from the title of her third book, For the Birds, Nature Notes from a Woodland Studio, due to be published this fall by McClelland and Stewart. For the Birds weaves humorous anecdotes of memorable bird personalities with vivid observations of the natural world seen through the passing seasons. A selection of the thirty-nine ink and brush drawings by the artist that accompany the text, will be on display at Lyghtesome during the course of the current show. A fourth book, Wild and Woolly, featuring animals as well as birds, is scheduled for publication in the autumn of 2000.
The Linda Johns show will be on display from June 1-30 and be followed by an annual exhibit of Antigonish Area Artists in July.
