Miller Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
Roxy Theatre, 10708  124th Street
March 21 – April 26, 2024

Reception: Thursday March 21, 7PM
Please RSVP to visualarts@theatrenetwork.ca

I moved to Vancouver in 1991 and instantly fell in love with the Burrard Inlet: mountains, clouds, beach volleyball, sunsets – and a froth of sea planes, sailboats, windsurfers and freighters going back and forth. For thirty-two years I have painted the Burrard Inlet and the inner working harbour. As Monet once did with cathedrals and haystacks, I have returned again and again to certain locations – Strathcona, Ambleside, Lion’s Gate Bridge, Jericho Beach, Spanish Banks and the Second Beach pool – to capture subtle shifts of viewpoint and changes in lighting.

I find oil tankers and cargo freighters the most interesting architectural objects in our landscape – objects whose shapes change and distort as they slowly rotate with the tides. Weak yellow lights glow from the small cabins of their crewmen, making the ships appear to be mysterious fortified floating monasteries with tangled cranes serving as rococo superstructure. I love painting the ships in fading light. Late afternoon light warms from yellow to pink. During sunset and fleeting crepuscule red-orange glow engenders feelings of longing. At night, the ships’ masses blur into the mountain background while strong white and green lights outline the edges of their silhouettes, reflecting far across the water. In the green-gold gloaming before dawn, strengthening light gradually reveals shape and form. → Continued below

About the Miller Art Gallery
I am very grateful to Jared Tabler (Curator for the Miller Art Gallery) and the Theatre Network (owners of the Roxy) for the opportunity to exhibit my works in Edmonton for the first time. I am delighted that I get to do so in such a well-designed exhibition space situated in such a wonderful and well-loved venue.

The original Roxy Theatre was built in 1938 as an art deco movie house. For decades, it showed films to Edmonton and area audiences before being acquired by Theatre Network board member, Nancy Power, who donated it to the company in 1989. Theatre Network converted the cinema into a live theatre and called it home for 25 years, until fire destroyed the original building on January 15, 2023.

It is due to the support of all levels of government and generous Edmontonians that Theatre Network was able to resurrect The Roxy (yes, like a phoenix from the ashes). In its current form, The Roxy will serve Edmonton artists and audiences for generations to come.