Please contact Claudia Mandler McKnight for more information: c-mcknight@rogers.com
Sentinel Island, Lake Penage:
The Ancestors Intercede 2018 Oil and cold wax on birch panel 24" x 24” $ 840 plus tax |
Claudia Mandler McKnight B.A. (Queen’s University); M.A. (University of Toronto); B.Ed. (University of Toronto), post-graduate diploma D.T.A.T.I. (Toronto Art Therapy Institute); MFA candidate, OCADU
Claudia studied Fine Arts at the Ontario College of Art, and has exhibited in public and private galleries since 1984. Claudia and her family live in Barrie, Ontario. Claudia paints in her home studio and on location at cottages on Bone Island, Georgian Bay and on Lake Penage, southwest of Sudbury. Her passion is expressive landscape and how it reflects the presence of place. Claudia also maintains a private practice as an art therapist. Contract work in this area has extended to many support agencies in the community. For over 20 years she has facilitated the art therapy and expressive art programmes of Candlelighters Simcoe, a support group for families of children with cancer. As an educator, Claudia has been a Visual Arts teacher and Curriculum Consultant for grades 1 – OAC in public, separate and independent schools. She has been a frequent recipient of "Artist in Education" grants through the Ontario Arts Council. She has also been the instructional leader of courses and/or workshops for art galleries, museums, colleges, universities, leadership centres, art education conferences and school boards across the province. For seven years Claudia taught Colour and Design courses one day a week at Georgian College in Barrie. She now facilitates the Grief and Loss course for the Toronto Art Therapy Institute, conducts clinical supervision for post-graduate students of art therapy, and is completing her second year of MFA studies at OCADU
Artist Statement
Through encaustic or oil and cold wax on scarred canvas, eroded wood and stressed paper, I explore landscapes of memory and possibility, and journeys of the mind and heart. Each painting comes into being slowly and searchingly. Compositions are suggested by the physical site, the irregularities of the painting surface and the actual process of mark-making.
Fissures, knotholes and other imperfections suggest initial carving, construction and brushwork. Pools of pigment are then scried for contours and shapes. Configurations from the environment work themselves into the imagery: the streamlined ellipse of a canoe, the arc of a satellite in the night sky. Further markings not only record topography, but seek to mirror the physical energy of the natural forces and personalities that shape the site.
My paintings have developed as a response to the overwhelming power of nature, first in Lake Penage, northern Ontario; then in Newfoundland, British Columbia, and the Yukon; and now on Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay, Ontario. Increasingly, the process of charting territory has become a vehicle for expressing a sense of place and a sense of self.
Claudia studied Fine Arts at the Ontario College of Art, and has exhibited in public and private galleries since 1984. Claudia and her family live in Barrie, Ontario. Claudia paints in her home studio and on location at cottages on Bone Island, Georgian Bay and on Lake Penage, southwest of Sudbury. Her passion is expressive landscape and how it reflects the presence of place. Claudia also maintains a private practice as an art therapist. Contract work in this area has extended to many support agencies in the community. For over 20 years she has facilitated the art therapy and expressive art programmes of Candlelighters Simcoe, a support group for families of children with cancer. As an educator, Claudia has been a Visual Arts teacher and Curriculum Consultant for grades 1 – OAC in public, separate and independent schools. She has been a frequent recipient of "Artist in Education" grants through the Ontario Arts Council. She has also been the instructional leader of courses and/or workshops for art galleries, museums, colleges, universities, leadership centres, art education conferences and school boards across the province. For seven years Claudia taught Colour and Design courses one day a week at Georgian College in Barrie. She now facilitates the Grief and Loss course for the Toronto Art Therapy Institute, conducts clinical supervision for post-graduate students of art therapy, and is completing her second year of MFA studies at OCADU
Artist Statement
Through encaustic or oil and cold wax on scarred canvas, eroded wood and stressed paper, I explore landscapes of memory and possibility, and journeys of the mind and heart. Each painting comes into being slowly and searchingly. Compositions are suggested by the physical site, the irregularities of the painting surface and the actual process of mark-making.
Fissures, knotholes and other imperfections suggest initial carving, construction and brushwork. Pools of pigment are then scried for contours and shapes. Configurations from the environment work themselves into the imagery: the streamlined ellipse of a canoe, the arc of a satellite in the night sky. Further markings not only record topography, but seek to mirror the physical energy of the natural forces and personalities that shape the site.
My paintings have developed as a response to the overwhelming power of nature, first in Lake Penage, northern Ontario; then in Newfoundland, British Columbia, and the Yukon; and now on Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay, Ontario. Increasingly, the process of charting territory has become a vehicle for expressing a sense of place and a sense of self.
The gallery’s primary focus is on Canadian artists with a bold, ambitious art practice and a forward-thinking programme dedicated to progressive
and thought-provoking art to engage the community. |