Lyghtesome Gallery
166 Main St.
Antigonish, N.S. B2G 2B7
An exhibit of small watercolour paintings by
Antigonish artist and art teacher Anna Syperek entitled "Quiet
Hours" opens at Lyghtesome Gallery on October l0th and runs until October
30th. A public reception with the artist will be held at the Main Street
gallery on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 10th from 4 - 6pm.
Anna Syperek is one of the Maritimes best known and admired realist painters
and has been living, working and teaching in Antigonish for over 32 years.
She paints in oil and watercolour but is also well known as a master printmaker,
producing numerous editioned copper plate etchings every year. Born
in England, of Polish and English parents, Syperek studied painting, drawing
and art history at York University in Toronto, before moving to Antigonish
in l971 and teaching herself watercolour painting. In 1977 she went
back to school at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, N.S.
to study printmaking, earning her BFA in 1980. She then returned to
Antigonish to set up her own etching studio at her home overlooking St. George's
Bay.
Anna Syperek has been a part time professor in
the Fine Arts Department at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish
for many years. She is a member of the Canadian Society of Painters
in Watercolour and several of her paintings are currently on display at Government
House in Halifax, along with the work of other Atlantic Region CSPWC members.
She helped to found the Society of Antigonish Printmakers (SOAP) and is actively
involved in the Nova Scotia Printmakers Association, chairing the 2003 Bi-Annual
Members Exhibition held at St. Francis Xavier University last fall.
Her drawings, paintings and etchings can be found in private and corporate
collections across Canada and in the United States.
Anna is currently working on a series of paintings
for a major exhibition entitled "Old New Scotland" that will focus
on the Highland Scottish landscape of Eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton
Island. Love of the land and its history initiated the project, one
that will "visually articulate the physical and cultural links between
old and New Scotland". The show is scheduled for exhibition at
St. Francis Xavier University and the Inverness Arts Centre in Cape
Breton in early spring and summer 2005, and there are future plans to travel
the collection to the Highlands of Scotland and the British Isles.
The primary inspiration for Anna Syperek's poetic realism comes from an intuitive rapport with her own surroundings, in and about the town and county of Antigonish. "Quiet Hours" features a new collection of small watercolour paintings produced over the last twelve months, here and in Cape Breton. These careful renderings exemplify the lucid, perceptive insight into the natural world that gives such unassuming warmth and beauty to Anna Syperek's work. With much of her time now spent in the etching studio or on location with large oils, these paintings represent a few rare, fleeting moments in the quiet hours of the seasons of the year that Anna chose to capture and share.
"Quiet Hours" will be on exhibit at Lyghtesome Gallery from October 10 - 30, 2004 and be followed by the Annual Christmas Group Show.
