2006 June: Hans Blokpoel "Simply Sculpture"

Simply Sculpture
Abstract works in stone
by Hans Blokpoel

In the Stepping Stones Art Gallery
June 3 – 4, 2006

Simply Sculpture Exhibit

Bio

Hans Blokpoel was born and educated in the Netherlands before emigrating to Canada in 1967. He has taken courses in sculpture both in Holland (with a local sculptor in Leiden) and in Canada (at the Ottawa School of Art). Currently a retired wildlife biologist, he has had a life-long interest in the beauty that is present in nature. His works are usually fairly stylized or abstract and they occasionally contemplate the human condition.

Artist Exhibit Statement

During a 4-week trip to Japan in 2002 (Kyoto, Takamatsu, Shodoshima and Benesse Islands) I was struck by the seemingly simple use of materials and the veneration for old works of art. I felt an affinity with those works and I am still inspired by them.
The large public sculptures, from stone from local quarries on Shodoshima Island, were also inspirational.

In my works designed for patios and gardens I try to make works that add visual pleasure to the garden. I like to use biomorphic objects that complement the natural shapes and forms of garden plants.

I have always been fascinated by the virtually unlimited numbers of shapes, forms, patterns, textures and materials that are present in nature.

My works are highly abstract and they often provide a surprising presence that animates the area around them.

The garden works are designed to stay outside during the winter and thus provide visual interest year-round. The works are given special effects by hoarfrost, freezing rain and snow. My smaller sculptures are more suitable for homes or offices.

I have been making a number of different "lines of work" and for this show I exhibit some works of these different lines of work.

Works using old bricks
I use eroded bricks and chunks of concrete to design simple, free-standing sculptures that are relatively small.

I also use eroded bricks to create totemic contemplation poles.

The Fragmentation Series

Another source of inspiration and material has been natural rocks that had fragmented or that were in the process of disintegrating.

I encountered these rocks in the Ottawa area and I have tried to "freeze" their fragmentation by emphasizing the fracture faces with colour.

Aerial Landscapes on Slate

More recently, I have been using square tiles of multi-colour slate to make imaginary landscapes that are designed to be hung on walls, but that can be displayed on horizontal surfaces as well.

I use slate tiles as metaphors for landscapes, as seen from the air, and small artifacts as metaphors for human impacts
in the landscape.

The landscapes are glimpses from an aircraft window. They are imaginary and do not attempt to depict real landscapes. They are neither models nor to scale. Even so, the landscapes are inspired by my own observations from aircraft as well as by air photographs taken by others.

Slate is a fine-grained rock that has been used to make roof tiles and school boards because it splits into thin, smooth-surfaced layers.

The tiles of multi-colour slate I used for this show have a mysterious feeling because they contain unknown geological history.

I selected tiles that “spoke” to me because they suggested landscapes (as seen from the air), or just because they were beautiful or otherwise interesting.
To indicate the human impact on the landscape I used man-made materials, such as various bits of hardware. I like to reuse discarded materials that have their own history to tell.

I am also interested in labyrinths and stone circles that can be found as sturdy and intriguing remains of the past. Here I use small pebbles that I collected from a local river to simulate the enormous monoliths that were used by our prehistoric forefathers to construct burial chambers and large sacred meeting places.

Solo exhibitions & invited Guest Sculptor
1993 - A resurrection of stones. Foyer Gallery, Nepean
1997 - Blokkedoos Gallery, Merrickville (guest sculptor)
2001 - Perceptions of Canada. Gamma Ray Gallery, Ottawa (guest sculptor)
2005 - Landscapes in slate, Atrium Gallery, Ben Franklin Place, Ottawa

Group exhibitions
1994 – 2005. The annual Dimensions Shows and other shows held by the National Capital Network of Sculptors.

Memberships
· The International Sculpture Center
· National Capital Network of Sculptors (2005 President)

Awards
“Mountain” at the Dimensions 2002 Show was the winner of the “NCNS Artists Choice Award”.
Contact Hans at: blokpoel[at]magma.ca
or visit www.magma.ca/~blokpoel

2005 December - Rebecca Benoit: Japanese Brush Paintings

Seeking Convergence in Landscape:
Seven years in Honshu Japanese Brush Paintings
by Rebecca Benoit

Click here for exhibit photos: coming soon!

One of the most positive ways of adapting to any new culture is to seek the similarities, not differences with our own. It is in precisely this way that we gain our bearings while discovering a new land, people and culture. A pure landscape devoid of human presence The artistic recreation of important scenes serves to stimulate our memories and quiet the mind. Compelling images, connected to personal history – namely, a view that becomes part of the soul are cemented into the mind’s eye. One of the first ‘memories’ I needed to paint for myself when I came to Japan in 1998 was the large landscape in oil which opens this exhibit.

I wanted to recreate this familiar landscape so it would transport me back to a place of comfort whenever I felt homesick. From the time I was a girl, we traveled north of Ottawa, into the Gatineau Valley where I spent every weekend and nearly two months each summer. The low, rounded hills I saw across this still lake face a solitary island. In the evening, I saw only the stars – and there was not another being within sight. All this contributed to my perception of beauty: namely a pure landscape devoid of human presence or influence. In the first four years of my Suibokuga (brush painting) studies with Tamaki-sensei、I lived in a concrete neighborhood in a city of 500,000 sixty kilometres south of Osaka. Initially, my desire to find nature consisted of floral studies: this was a way to essentialize the landscape and block out my surroundings of pavement and wires.

I was captivated by the way my teacher captured the essence of a flower with the richness of ink. But perhaps the greatest influence on my painting happened when I moved to the historical Wakaura area. I came to my twice-weekly lessons with the desire to capture the new landscape which I’ve grown so attached to. Whether it is the lyrical willows which grew on either side of Furobashi during the Edo period, or the perfect row of pines which grace Kataonami today; the picturesque temple and pavilion on Tamatsushima, or the shrines with their ancient staircases of stone, all of these signify to me an intensely beautiful and compelling landscape.

After many years of living in Japan, a nation of millions, I continued to paint landscapes devoid of people, erasing the trace of humanity, preserving the purity of the landscape. However, indisputable traces of human agency remain in the distant temples or sails on the horizon in my paintings. This is the reality of life on Honshu, an island which human occupation has placed its mark on the landscape. Of all the paintings here, the one I feel is most successful, is that of Horaiwa: a rugged water-worn stone, with a few tiny pine trees clinging to life, sculpted by the wind and waves: this is a scene that is quite similar to one on a lake in eastern Quebec where I grew up.

In the end, we come full circle: our eye seeks what is most familiar within any new landscape. We seek similarities to give ourselves comfort when we find ourselves in an environment to fundamentally different or alien. It is in these primordial stones, rocks, trees in Wakaura that create a bridge for me between Japan and Canada.

Having first studied drawing and lithography for six months in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Rebecca was drawn to the simplicity of black and white Japanese brush paintings. She currently paints in Ottawa, Canada.

To see more of Rebecca’s paintings:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/waka2005art/my_photos

You can contact her at beccabenoit[at]yahoo.com

2006 March - Shoko Shimamura: Original Works in Oil

Shoko Shimamura: Original Works in Oil
Stepping Stones Art Gallery, March 2006

Ms. Shimamura, a native of Wakayama Prefecture in Japan works primarily in oil. The exhibit presented in the gallery during the Camellia Teas of Ottawa Monthly Event on March 11th featured works that were surrealist, with a Japanesque feel to them.

Shoko Shimamura Exhibit