SHARON THIRKETTLE, Earth: Where Science Becomes Art, Jan 18-Apr 3, 2005, Calgary Science Centre, Calgary; opening Mar 19, 2005, Collector’s Gallery, Calgary

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"Autumn Fields"

Sharon Thirkettle, "Autumn Fields," 2004, oil on canvas, 24" x 48".

SHARON THIRKETTLE

ALBERTA: Earth: where science becomes art, Jan 18-Apr 3, 2005 Calgary Science Centre, Calgary; opening Mar 19, Collector’s Gallery, Calgary

By Jill Sawyer

Calgary-based landscape painter Sharon Thirkettle has spent almost a year going in a whole new direction as an artist. Inspired by satellite images of the earth, Thirkettle has created more than 100 ceramic works for a collaborative exhibition that mixes art and earth sciences at the Calgary Science Centre. And to complement that show, she’ll bring some of her new discoveries into her landscapes for a solo show at Collector’s Gallery. “After working in a three-dimensional form for the past year, I’m interested in how to transfer that into my painting,” Thirkettle says. “I’m working with more simplified shapes and forms, and a strength of colour, compared to what I used to paint.” Maintaining a strong sense of place, Thirkettle’s canvases have an abstract cast, taking the viewer into the high Arctic, to the coast of New Zealand, and just outside her door in the Alberta foothills. “Working in ceramics has slowed down my thought process,” she says. “I tended to be an intuitive, fast painter.” Now, she’s been able to take more time to fully absorb her feelings about a landscape and set it on canvas.

Represented by: Collector’s Gallery, Calgary; Westbridge Fine Art, Vancouver