Entering Silence by Lynne Saintonge at the Assumption Gallery
3/4/2015 12:00:00 AM
From March 4 to April 29, Assumption Life will be hosting an exhibit by Lynne Saintonge, Entering Silence, at its Assumption Gallery. The New Brunswick artist will present 11 watercolors and acrylics.
“For the past eight years, my work has been slowly moving towards the abstract” Lynne Saintonge says. “When I start a painting, I’m reacting to something that moves me. This process becomes a sort of meditative contemplation that unfolds over time — days, weeks, months, sometimes a year or more. Then gradually, time does its work, and the piece refocuses on its original subject.”
Entering Silence is a study of nature and a manifestation of the ideas and reflections it inspires in the artist. The titles of her works reveal part of what captured Saintonge’s imagination. “I would like visitors to take the time to get close to my works and feel something in their minds and in their hearts,” the artist says. “Looking at a painting takes time; it’s not simply entertainment.”
Lynne Saintonge wants to reach people emotionally, through the colors, ideas and feelings that make up her works. She sees art as the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings, as Agnes Martin, the great American painter hailing from Canada, once said.
Lynne has been painting for 36 years, and part of her artistic practice involves listening closely to the raw material itself. “Starting a new painting is often unsettling. I know my techniques very well, but I don’t use a formula. So each time it’s like diving into the unknown” She says she paints by letting go of all certainty and forgetting much of what she believes she knows to let the work reveal itself. She says it’s an important step, because too much certainty restricts the keenness of the senses.
Originally from the Rivière-Verte region, in northwestern New Brunswick, she comes from a family of artists; both her mother and her great-grandmother were painters. She now lives in Riverview, where she has her studio. In 2006, Colin S. MacDonald included her in the Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Vol. 8. The exhibit's mini-site: www.lynnesaintonge.ca/enteringsilence
The Assumption Gallery exhibits contemporary and modern paintings, folk art, sculptures and photographs produced by professional Canadian artists. Six exhibits, running two months each, are presented every year. It is located at 770 Main St., in Moncton, on the ground floor of Assumption Place.