JUDITH LIVINGSTON

WEAVING LEAVES AND WATER

Curated by Katerina Atanassova

SEPTEMBER 18 - NOVEMBER 9, 2008

THE VARLEY ART GALLERY OF MARKHAM

WEAVING LEAVES and WATER celebrates Judith Livingston’s twenty-five year artistic career in Markham and her role at preserving and promoting our donor Kathleen Gormley McKay’s legacy in our community. As in the case of many artists, the success of her art career depended on her vision as an artist and her ability to express her feelings in a visual form that could help others see and appreciate her surroundings in a new way.

Attuned, since early childhood in Woodstock, Ontario, to the grandeur and the mystery of the Canadian wilderness which she recorded in a variety of media and dimensions, from sketching and drawing to painting in watercolour, acrylic and oil, from small scale canvas to large murals and mixed media works.

Teaching has always been a great part of her life. Her role as a mentor to young artists was a major part of her life and helped many of her students in taking their first steps in drawing and painting with watercolours. As early as 1967 Judith took her first teaching job in Collingwood. Her subsequent move to London, Ontario two years later, and to North Vancouver in 1978, helped expand her artistic oeuvre. The move to British Columbia in particular helped her define the direction she wanted to take in her artistic pursuits. The distinct and breathtaking landscape of the Rocky Mountains and the fresh contact with the vibrant art scene in Vancouver brought back her passion for painting the woodland.

Attracted by the variety of textures found in her immediate surroundings, she discovered new opportunities and freedom through mixed media collage. According to her, “found objects were the grist for my creative mill, and the margins of my school workbooks the support for my constant doodling”.

Yet, it was her husband’s corporate move to the rapidly growing community in Markham in 1983 that proved to be a vital point in her artistic development. Through her membership at the Markham Group of Artists she was exposed to new ways of experimentation in drawing and painting, and her art evolved in a new direction. Her association with Kathleen Gormley McKay (1898-1996) and her active participation in the Varley-McKay Art Committee led to further involvement with the art scene in the community of Markham and the building of the Varley Art Gallery, which helped preserve the legacy of Fred Varley and Kathleen McKay.

Katerina Atanassova, Curator, The Varley Art Gallery, 2008

Judith Livingston's Weaving Leaves and Water

Opening Reception ~ September 21, 2008