The artwork of Janice Parker has come into flower. The Prince George painter has installed a bouquet of her latest works at Groop Gallery, where she might be a new discovery for art fans looking for traditional stylistic tastes. Her images are reminiscent of the great impressionists, and they are bold depictions of floral subjects.
"It's all about the flowers," said Parker. "I was all about the impressionists but I actually think I'm easing more into the abstract. That all started with my backgrounds. I started using more blacks and blues as the base colour, cutting out with my brush to establish where the leaves will be in that negative space, and from that I'm seeing the beginnings of abstract elements moving into what I do."
There are no uncertainties, though, that each of these paintings is a flashing representation of flowers, even if they lack realist literalism. Parker deliberately wants to enliven the paintings' display space more than realism would usually allow. Or watercolours. Parker is allergic to the oils of fine art, and she is uninspired by the colour punch of watercolour art, so she is exclusively a practitioner of acrylics.
"You just can't get the richness of these colours any other way," she said.
Such deliberation and passion are, not surprisingly, beating from the pulse of a teacher. Parker is at the head of the Grade 3-4 class at Nukko Lake elementary school, where she puts a classroom emphasis on the arts in order to engage and enrich the students. Often that means buying art supplies on her own dime so the kids can take part in the arts, or lobbying School District 57 procurement officials for more and better supplies. She is also an outspoken advocate for restoring past levels of music instruction to the school system.
This drive to make quality art and inspire creativity is part of why Groop Gallery proprietor Melanie Desjardines was willing to give Parker a solo exhibition at the downtown art store.
"She and I used to be in the Artists' Workshop together 12 years ago or so," said Desjardines. "Also, she did the Artists In The Garden program and was the artist who was in my own garden on that tour, so I got to know her and her work."
Desjardines wondered out loud about the similar spirit between Parker's work and famed Vanderhoof artist Annerose Georgeson. "Oh yeah, Annerose, I love her stuff," Parker said, overhearing.
Every detail in a painting is a choice, Parker said, and even if it doesn't translate as a challenge to the casual viewer, the difference between painting a flower in the wild versus painting them cut in a vase, or raggedy petals versus voluptuous petals, puts the painter on entirely different artistic routes. These choices are part of Parker's delight in the process.
To surprise and please the audience even more, Parker said, when the 20 paintings at Groop Gallery are unveiled tonight at 7, she will also have a mini-concert by some of the area's old-time fiddlers, another artistic pursuit of hers. She will also do an artist's talk. The show is entitled Tenacity and will hang for viewing until June 27.
