“Down the Harbour Road”
Recent Paintings and Etchings by Anna Syperek

November 7-30, 2007Featured during the month of November at Lyghtesome Gallery is a show of recent paintings and etchings by the well-known Nova Scotia artist Anna Syperek. This is Syperek’s first solo show since her major 2005 exhibition entitled “Old New Scotland” that toured Nova Scotia and then travelled to four venues in the Outer Hebrides and Highland Region of Scotland. This new “closer to home” collection entitled “Down the Harbour Road” includes thirteen watercolour and oil paintings and four recent copperplate etchings.
Anna Syperek is one of the Maritimes’ best known and admired realist painters and has been living, working and teaching in Antigonish for over 35 years. She paints in oil and watercolour but is also well known as a master printmaker, producing numerous editioned copper plate etchings every year. An award winning member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour, her work appears in both regional and national juried CSPWC exhibitions every year. She helped to found the Society of Antigonish Printmakers (SOAP) and is the current President of the Nova Scotia Printmakers Association. During her tenure she will be organizing a travelling exchange show of NSPA printmakers with one or two other printmaking associations outside of the province. Her drawings, paintings and etchings can be found in private and corporate collections across Canada and in the United States. Syperek currently teaches part time in the Fine Arts Department at St. Francis Xavier University.
The primary inspiration for Anna Syperek's poetic style of realism has always been her own surroundings, whether at home, in town or out in the world of nature. She describes her choice of subject matter in this new collection of work:
“ All the paintings in this show were done “on location”, that is, in the car with a painting buddy, sitting out in the garden, or from a window. They are almost all done down the harbour road, where I live, small vignettes or wonderful views noted on my way in and out of town, to be returned to later to explore with pencil and paint. There is something very magical about sitting for hours before the scene that so captured you, discovering the richness of pattern and design and colour combinations that you had only subliminally noticed on your first encounter".
When this exhibit goes up, Anna will be involved in a project that will take her much further afield. She is accompanying her husband Peter Murphy, a videographer, on a “fiddle train” that will take them across Canada. Alisdair MacNeil, a well known Scottish fiddler with close connections to the Cape Breton celtic music scene, will be giving concerts and workshops, with other musicians, on a VIA Rail train that will travel from Vancouver to Toronto. The Syperek/Murphy artist team will be recording this unusual event each in their own particular medium, eventually to share the experience with the rest of us. Something to look forward to in the future.
“ Down the Harbour Road” will be on exhibit from November 7-30, 2007 at Lyghtesome Gallery, 166 Main St., in Antigonish and on-line at www.lyghtesome.ca. A reception with the artist will be held on Saturday, November 10th from 4-6pm at Lyghtesome Gallery. All are welcome!***** Please Note *****
Lyghtesome is trying to update it's snail mail list. If you don't receive an invite in the mail to this show and you would like to be added to our special invitation list for future shows, email us your mail address or stop into the Gallery, see the show and register yourself. You will receive free, Anna Syperek's new card " Winter Woods " as illustrated in this month's poster. This offer is valid only at the Gallery and until December 1, 2007.

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