Cobourg Artist Barbara Buntin holds up an unnamed work that she has created for her upcoming show at the Colborne Art Gallery. The show opens on May 2.
Barbara Buntin’s decision to title her upcoming show in this moment couldn’t have been more apt.
While her work is a display of captured moments in the lives and thoughts of her subjects, the artist is, herself, currently immersing herself in every moment as she concentrates more fully in her craft.
Buntin attended the New School of Fine Art in Toronto, a school formed as a reaction to the Ontario College of Art. Much of the work done there is figurative. That influence has remained with her in her monotype printing which she began about six years ago – where the colours for a piece of work are laid down on one or more layers on glass, then transferred to paper to make a single copy.
Her study at the Art Therapy Institute of Toronto is the other significant influence on her life and on the inner reflection found in her work. Art is a process of examination, not a finished piece, she says.
Now working full time as an artist, the Cobourg resident is stepping back from art therapy, which at times could be very stressful. She can take as much time as she wants now to explore her vision, not finding herself in a rush to complete a piece for an upcoming show.
It’s a relief to have the time, she says. Having blocks of time allows her to concentrate and gives her room to grow and explore. Now she can work with no defined goals and become immersed in her work.
The artist plans to have between 12-15 thought-provoking pieces in her upcoming show – all capturing a person or a thought, or an action at a particular place in time. It could be a flirting glance or a glimpse of a decision being made. Most will be monotypes but the former water colourist says some pieces will lift off the page as she adds paper collage and sculpting using washi paper.
In one evocative piece a woman takes a quick look back to the calm and order behind her as she steps forward figuratively into an almost blank canvass.
When asked what the show would look like, Buntin admitted that it will reflect what is happening now. There are no hard and fast ideas.
While she continues to experiment, the artist misses the opportunity to share with others doing monotyope. She says it is difficult to find others doing the same kind of work
The show, in this moment runs from May 2 to June 14 at the Colborne Art Gallery at 51 King St. E. in Colborne.
The artist will be there on opening day this Saturday, listening to the responses, a valuable, rewarding learning process, particularly when the emotions are different from the ones she intended. Sometimes the responses will lead her in altogether new directions. “You can’t control them, so you might as well revel in them.”
“I find it wonderful to make something that someone will have an emotional response to,” she beams.
Barbara recently had three of her works selected for the 32nd Annual Juried Exhibition which was held recently at the Art Gallery of Northumberland in Cobourg.
This fall her Cobourg studio will also be on the Northumberland Studio Tour.
More information about the Colborne Art Gallery can be found on its re-designed website http://www.thecolborneartgallery.ca/.
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