“BEHIND THE SCENES”

JUNE 4 – 30, 2007

Lyghtesome Gallery

Antigonish, N.S.

Visit the Virtual Exhibit

The 32nd Annual Solo Show of Recent Work by Antigonish artist Linda Johns opens at Lyghtesome Gallery in Antigonish on Monday, June 4th. Entitled "BEHIND THE SCENES", this exhibit represents another outstanding year of art making by this prolific painter and sculptor, equally well-known for her talents as an award-winning writer and naturalist Featured in the show are twelve acrylic paintings on canvas, nine paintings on full-sheet watercolour paper, and nine half sheet vertical paintings, a new format for Johns. In addition, there are two paintings with carved frames and eight whalebone sculptures. Coinciding with the opening of the 2007 show is the launch of two new limited edition handmade books of drawings and words by Linda Johns, produced in collaboration with Jeff Parker of Lyghtesome Gallery. Both books, printed on Japanese paper with a hand-sewn binding, are a glimpse into the development of Johns' unique vision, featuring early drawings from two distinct periods of her life.

Characteristically hard-hitting on issues concerning the welfare of the environment while celebrating the universal energies of the natural world, the collection of paintings and sculpture featured in the “BEHIND THE SCENES” exhibit both plunges us into despair and lifts us to glorious heights of beauty and transcendence. Having cared for and released injured wild birds for many years, Linda Johns has traditionally incorporated images of birds into her use of archetypal symbolism – owls, robins, doves, herons, and eagles nesting, migrating, nurturing, seeking the light, participating in the cycle of seasonal renewal, rising above the mundane. Birds still inhabit the majority of her recent images, but this year a new creature has ridden into many of the paintings with equal creative power and grace, both the earthly and mythological winged variety of the species.

Although a recent addition to her acrylic works on paper, the horse is not new to Johns' artistic eye. She first began drawing horses, both real and imaginary, as a young girl, a process that continued all through adolescence. After moving to Nova Scotia as a young adult, she began slipping into the show barns at the Fall Fair every year both to have the chance to be with the animals and to continue to try to capture their magnificence on paper. It is the collection of these early drawings that inspired the first of the two limited edition books being launched during the June exhibit. "Tall Tails, Drawings of Horses, 1970-74” is both an insightful look at a young artist training herself to see and perceive and an interesting study of the intelligent, intuitive creature that is the horse. Anecdotal observations accompany the over 30 reproductions of early drawings in conte, charcoal, pencil, felt- tipped pens and oil pastel, joined in the final pages by recent color paintings of horses done during this past year, the originals of which are in the show.

The artist expresses: "Drawing horses taught me much about strength and simplicity, gentleness without weakness, feeling rather than sentiment. In their great forms I found light and dark creating each other. In their fathomless eyes I felt the mystery that will always inspire". As a visionary artist, Johns now works with the elemental power and mystery of the horse on a more symbolic level, using it in her work to represent wisdom, intuitive protection and guidance, and those with wings the innate capacity for spiritualization and transcendence, all qualities of the “wider vision” Johns emphasizes we need to develop to survive the planetary crisis ahead.

Linda Johns explores a mystery of a different sort in the second of the hand-made books being introduced entitled “Shapes and Shadows, Pencil Drawings 1979-1981”. Many will remember this period from Johns’ early paintings, ink drawings and linocuts, when she strove to capture the intriguing interplay of light and shadow of night lighting on the houses and trees, barns and fields of Antigonish town and county. The many sketchbook drawings recorded during those years of night wanderings are reproduced in this book, as well as a selection of acrylic paintings that resulted from the pencil studies.

Both books provide a look “behind the scenes” at the long career of a very dedicated artist. Although Johns has left the specifics of house and barn behind, her new work still seeks “to express that great mystery of which we are a part”, the invisible forces at work behind the visible world. And the horses have come thundering back to express a renewed energy for the never ending creative journey. The work of Linda Johns will be on exhibit from June 4 to 30 at Lyghtesome and later in the summer will be featured in a two-month exhibit at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre Gallery throughout July and August.

Lyghtesome Gallery
166 Main Street
Antigonish, Nova Scotia B2G 2B7

web: www.lyghtesome.ns.ca
email: lyghtesome@eastlink.ca
Gallery: 902-863-5804 Home/workshop: 902-863-8122
Jeff and Beth Parker