Art Place Gallery’s new show, “Common Ground”, features paintings by two long-time friends and colleagues, Jane Marshall and Sonja Gabalis Mortimer.  Former visual arts educators from the Peel District School Board, they paint our landscapes, whether land or water, and the interaction between human endeavor and the natural world, and the constant friction between natural beauty and the constructed environment.

Acton-based Mortimer says, “My art is landscape re-interpreted, altered or transformed.  Momentary glimpses of natural settings, and colour and light effect that I see in my travels are a constant source of inspiration.”  Her work features structured man-made spaces as well as the randomness of more natural scenes.

Welland artist Marshall has long been fascinated by the properties of transparency, translucence and reflection, and interpretations of these qualities always find their way into her work. Whether water, glass or sunlight streaming through a windowpane: all of these draw her attention and she recreates them in a dynamic and expressive manner.

“The study of water characterizes my work in this exhibition.  Water moving, and water still: water free to choose its own path, and water imprisoned in containers: all of these variations are the many ways in which water presents itself,” she says.  “A transparent medium that can assume any colour, that can move in different ways, that changes and distorts its surroundings, that transforms itself from liquid to vapour and to solid—all of these wonderful qualities make it a fascinating subject.”

These beautiful paintings filled with environmental meaning were shown at the Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre, Glen Williams, ON during the month of September, and are coming to Arts Place Gallery, 714 King Street, Port Colborne from October 20 to November 27.  Arts Place invites visitors to meet the artists on Sunday, October 23 from 2 – 4 p.m.