"In The Glow"
Graeme Shaw, "In The Glow," 2007, oil on panel, 38" x 44".
GRAEME SHAW, Explorations
Birchwood Gallery, Yellowknife (now closed)
Dec 7 to 9, 2007
By Stacey Abramson
With a career spanning more than three decades, Nanaimo-based painter Graeme Shaw has honed in on the purest angles of natural beauty in his work. Over the years, Shaw has lived the life of a teacher, illustrator and most prominently, a painter. “Painting images on huge, uplifting and inspiring themes that speak to anyone, no matter who they are or where we come from, is my passion,” Shaw explains. His upcoming exhibition at Yellowknife’s Birchwood Gallery features large flowing canvases inspired by two trips to the southwestern United States, and the vast landscapes of the Canadian Arctic — the same region that A.Y. Jackson explored decades earlier. Shaw’s paintings depict rolling scenery in the same vein as some of Canada’s most famous historical painters, including Jackson and others in the Group of Seven. The works in Explorations move through the subtleties that balance the relationship between land and light. Shaw says that he is “not overly interested in esoteric, idiosyncratic or self-absorbed topics that most people will not understand or ever relate to except tangentially or paradoxically.” With each thoughtful brush stroke, Shaw brings viewers into a world where beauty, vibrancy and simplicity reign supreme.
Represented by: Birchwood Gallery, Yellowknife; Pacific Gallery, Saskatoon; Webster Galleries, Calgary; Gallery 223, Nanaimo.