FOCUS

1040 MOSS ST | AGGV.CA
“The Road Home” 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas
or mossy patch in the woods near her new home in Cumberland. In
“The Road Home,” the long shadows reaching across the bumpy road
are compelling to Callow and compositionally satisfying in the horizontal
counterpoint they add to the vanishing road.
The raking light of winter and, any time of year, the early or late
day are what she likes the best. “I am just looking out my window
now. It’s late morning and there are beautiful long shadows,” she
describes over the phone. “It’s the low light at this time of year. I
guess it’s the moisture in the air from the ocean,” she suspects. More
diffuse, perhaps, than the crisp prairie light.
It is a major component of generating sense of place, as is local
specificity. Again in “The Road Home,” one will notice how the light
plays on the rugose surface of the road. Callow likes its roughness:
“It is a sort of subversiveness,” she offers, adding, “There are very
interesting back lanes around Cumberland here—old garages, chimneys
sticking out of them, that sort of thing. They are not manicured;
they have just sort of evolved over the years.”
Callow is attracted to the particular quirk inherent in any urban
area that has seen such an evolution. It’s what she explores in her urban
scenes, which she usually does in watercolour and ink to heighten the
character of the architecture. In “Fernwood Square,” ink snakes in a
fine, jittery line along the building’s cornice to suggest its weathered
state. And then the pale watercolour wash of sun on its façade gives
it vitality. Follow that light as it spills through the upstairs window,
and one could imagine it landing, just so, on a perfect bowl of apples.
See “Apples in a Wooden Bowl” at the juried group show, Red,
February 3-21 at Coast Collective Gallery. 103-318 Wale Road, Colwood,
250-391-5522, www.coastcollective.ca. Barbara Callow is teaching a
workshop at Coast Collective, February 13 & 14. See www.coastcollective.ca.
Find Barbara Callow online at www.barbaracallow.ca.
WATER + PIGMENT + PAPER
JANUARY 30 - MAY 23. 2016
Enter the unexpected world of watercolours! Not
often recognized as an experimental medium,
we'll explore the groundbreaking work of known
and not so well known artists who pushed
watercolour boundaries, spanning over 200 years.
For the very reason that the raking light illuminates the
moss the way it does, Aaren Madden’s favourite West
Coast season is winter.
GRACE WILSON MELVIN | SUMMER RADIANCE II WATERCOLOUR, TEMPERA, INK,
WOMEN'S COMMITTEE CULTURAL FUND, COLLECTION OF THE AGGV
www.focusonline.ca • February 2016
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