A Featured Exhibition of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival

Presenting a new body of work, Beaudry reflects upon the northern Canadian landscape of the frozen lake. Captured in its palpable silence, winter snow cover is not one of erasure, rather one of memory and personal detail.

In conjunction with this exhibition, the Art Gallery of Mississauga has produced a catalogue Sur la glace | Standing on Ice. The following is an excerpt from an essay by Gaelle Morel on Beaudry’s work (English translation by Monica Haim):

Lise Beaudry is originally from Earlton, a hamlet in Northern Ontario near the Quebec border; her photographic work explores the ciy landscape of this region. She is particularly interested in the frozen lakes, where rural communities fish in winter. Ice fishing, which is a typical popular leisure activity for the French-speaking inhabitants of this area, constitutes an occasion to meet an dto carry on an old tradition. Yet, in representing these gatherings of family and friends, which she has attended every year since childhood, Beaudry makes a seemingly paradoxical choice: she shows bare and snowy landscapes devoid of any human figure. An aesthetic of distancing, informed as much by the documentary style as by abstract painting, makes the fishing huts and the smooth surfaces of the snow-covered lakes — so intimately linked with her personal history — appear stripped of all sentimentality.

A full version of the essay, as well as the original French version, can be found in the Sur la glace | Standing on Ice catalogue, available at the Art Gallery of Mississauga.

She is the boss and commands your attention, I was hypnotized I could not get enough of her demos: she makes it look effortless but it is the hardest thing I ever did and I am forever grateful to her…  Through her I learned to trust my instincts.

She teaches with passion and is very serious about her art; she is a force not to be taken lightly and knows who is serious about their art as well.
She is my mentor, I am truly grateful that our paths crossed; it made me a better artist. When she signed my book: “This is only the beginning…” 
 
Thanks Lila, have a great exhibit.

- 
Danielle Doucet

Learning from her has freed me, not only to paint expressively in acrylics, but also in the screen monoprinting and plein aire landscape painting that I also enjoy. I am sure at my first classes at  Haliburton with Lila, I must have driven her crazy as I struggled to adapt to seeing and creating strong, well formed images. But with perseverance and many repeat classes with her now for over 5 years I am finally happy and she can be pleased with my progress I hope.

- Dr C. James Ingles

Taking Lila’s class for 3 summers at Haliburton School of the Arts has truly been an exceptional experience and one that I have not tired of as of yet. I realize there is so much to learn. Lila supported each student’s individual style and effort with the utmost respect.

- Suzanne Kirshenblatt Walsh

In subsequent demos I found her emotion so palpable that, as I was watching her, I became tearful.  I admired her freedom to be vulnerable and “in the moment” in front of all of us.  Lila’s obvious willingness to not only trust her intuition as she was painting but also consistently encourage all of us during the critiquing part of the day, coaxed me out of the heady back corner in which I had been hiding.

One of Lila’s most helpful statements, one that has stayed with me as I continue to paint all these years later is, “Fight for your shapes!  The rest is just decoration!” In Lila’s workshops I learned that I was braver than I thought I was.  So, now I have learned to paint my feelings and the healing happens.

- Joan Tribble

The AGM is proud to present:

Shawn Micallef: Psychogeographic Walking Tour of Mississauga
Sunday, May 6
Meet at the Art Gallery of Mississauga 2 pm

RSVP 905 896 5088 / jaclyn.qua-hiansen@mississauga.ca

RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/165579160226524/

The AGM is also pleased to partner with TEDx Mississauga
Thursday, May 3
9 am – 5 pm, U of T Mississauga

Details: http://tedxyouthmississauga.com/

Lots of other great events throughout the week!

Sometimes just being in her presence is enough.

Watching her paint is breath taking and engaging – like watching an opera unfold.

Lila’s exercises in composition are invaluable. Her marriage of this structure with fluid spontaneous from the gut movement of paint is a powerful lesson in learning to dance with perfect balance between making it happen and letting it happen.

During critique sessions, Lila’s chant: “do you see it” is still with me as I examine my own work. Guiding us to learn to see has been a great gift.

- Mary Louise White, St Thomas, Ontario

Dubbed “the affordable art fair,” the expo didn’t live up to its name with the cheapest piece being more than $600.

While most of the artists were more than happy for patrons to snap photos of their works, some artists were hesitant and dare I say paranoid that some devious person will create a poster of a work and make ridiculous profits from it.

I thought exposure was essential for an artist. Wouldn’t someone taking a photo of your work eventually bring exposure? Sure, you don’t see any profit immediately, but the long-term benefit could be enormous.

Despite its conservative exhibitors, Toronto Art Expo is a great opportunity to experience a large collection of different artists, styles and influences in one building. Just don’t forget your checkbook or your bargaining skills.

- Curtis Sindrey, Art Gallery of Mississauga Intern

When Curry’s Art Store had their art school some years ago, I attended two five day workshops in which Lila shared her energetic spirit of painting with us. I will never forget her constant mantra “five to seven shapes, five to seven shapes…”, heard as we forged our way through various painting exercises in black and white shapes and values, and then moved into colour, getting larger and larger each time.

At a five-day painting retreat and workshop at Bridgewater, near Actinolite, we could paint all day and all night. My fondest memories from that workshop were of Lila showing us some Tai Chi moves on the porch and of her inviting us to her cabin to listen to one of the operas from “The Ring” series on radio.

The most important thing I learned from Lila was when she told all of her students that we could do this on our own, and that we no longer needed her direction. We just needed the strength to take that next step.

That is when I started to make breakthroughs on what I really wanted to express.

Lila paints through emotion. I paint to express energy, soul and mood, intuitively connecting with the energies of bodies of water, and also, in some series, with the various moods of people in relationships.

- Gwen Tooth

Many aspiring artists flock to Haliburton, Ontario to work hard, be inspired, exposed and altered. Lila is on a relentless quest to instill a deep understanding of the technical applications and merits of this unique abstract art form while channeling each student to free their mind and instinctively apply paint to canvass…with confidence and without hesitation.

By day two you will likely have completed over 70 sketches, shapes, elements, contrasts and small coloured abstractions of one kind or another.

By day five Lila requires that all students complete seven full works on canvas, completed within a span of 5-10 minutes each.  The results are amazing, just about as amazing as the wonderful way in which she gently transports you from the person you were, to  five days later, an abstractionist with a glimmer of hope.

Lila stretches her students like she does her canvas and she boldly extols the courage of clearing the mind like she throws her acrylic paint…with conviction.

- John Rowsome