Landscape is big in Canada ever since the Group of Seven, so it is not a surprise that so many contemporary Canadian artists, start as a landscapist or depicting images from nature. Canada is a beautiful land with wilderness largely present. Kim Dorland is one of those artists who is considered a landscapist and compared to Tom Thomson. He might paint landscapes but he is more like a city-boy, who brings the drama of a city into the otherwise peaceful landscape. The McMichael\u2019s curator, Katarina Atanassova, called him a \u201cTom Thomson on acid\u201d because of his vibrant, neon-like colors. His Painting method is very physical as he uses a lot of paint, in many layers, so much so that sometimes the work becomes almost sculptural (Portrait of a Landscape, Two Trees<\/em>, 2017).<\/p>\n The gallery chose his painting, Bay Blanket #3<\/em> (2014) as its poster image for the exhibition. In this work, a young woman\u2014the artist\u2019s wife Lori\u2014kneels on a bed in front of a wall covered with family paraphernalia, holding a Bay blanket to cover her nakedness. Her face and arms are created from thick paint that the artist has partly removed, so it looks cratered, to erase any photographic likeness. The Bay blanket is emblematic of the North and the other walls are bare, like in a cabin. Dorland\u2019s vision of a forest, or other parts of nature, is very different from any realistic or idealistic view. He doesn\u2019t want to be photorealistic, as he said, even in his landscapes he wants \u201cto tell his own story.\u201d<\/p>\n In her watercolor composition, Livable Collaborations I<\/em> (2017), Andrea Williamson depicts a turtle carrying flowers on his back that are a habitat for bees, as well as corals on its legs \u2013 showing how nature\u2019s creatures are interrelated and dependent on each other. A human finger, on the left side of the picture, is touching the creature with loving care, bringing us, humans, into the circle of nature.<\/p>\n Many of the paintings in the exhibition focus on human nature or our interactions in society. The contrasting contours and radiating lights of Erin Loree\u2019s paintings catch our attention immediately. Her mystical compositions are abstract and somewhat realistic at the same time; I would call her method magical realism. The two figures in Sacred Time<\/em> are painted with wide, energetic brushstrokes, with their earthy color rooting them into the ground. The purple stoles they wear, as well as the ribbons at the top, bridge them into mystical spheres. Together they create a temple in nature where people look toward and unite with the elements of higher realities. Loree\u2019s pieces are charged with emotional energy and the movements grasped in time radiate light that seems to emerge from within.<\/p>\n At first sight Scott Everingham\u2019s paintings are rigidly abstract. We focus on their captivating surfaces: the strong, textured strokes or light curtains of paint, their directions and colors, the harmony and the contrast they create. It is hard to tell what we are looking at in Laid Eyes 15<\/em>; a lakeside landscape where we can enter the water through reeds, a house, a temple that is open to the sky or both. Behind the abstraction is a spontaneous but strong expression that guides us into fabricating narratives that fit the images.<\/p>\n Narrative is unmistakably the strongest element of Andy Dixon\u2019s work. His central theme is the world of luxury and leisure. His canvases are filled with motifs of wealth: richly decorated rooms occupied by elegant lords and ladies, beauties and nudes. With those depictions, the artist could give voice to a political or social critique of the wealthy but Dixon doesn\u2019t. He seems to enjoy that world and lately his canvases of upper class social scenes seem to feature his own previous paintings hanging on the walls in the background. He obviously borrows subject matter and stylistic elements from Matisse and Picasso, among others, creating an eclectic composition accentuated by with his use of bright colors.<\/p>\n In stark contrast with Dixon\u2019s social butterflies, Justin Ogilvie\u2019s canvases focus on the inner self. He tries to depict the metaphysical nature of the self in relation to others, their influences and interactions. Through the human figure, he addresses themes of intimacy between the bodies of lovers, strangers, and what he calls “the myriad of others within the self”. Ogilvie mixes realism and abstraction, and creates, through various mediums of painting and drawing, a magical, often metaphysical world.<\/p>\n Thrush Holmes\u2019 pieces are very different from the others in the show. His work has been described as loud, showy, playful, vulgar, larger-than-life, and yet, simultaneously delicate, detailed and subtle. Untitled 1<\/em>\u00a0is a vibrant piece of the combined motifs of a feather and a star in front of a sketchy background lighted up with yellow and blue neon tubes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/O-Canada-installation-view-at-BEERS-Gallery.jpg\")
<\/a>Installation view of\u00a0O Canada!\u00a0<\/em>at BEERS Gallery, London, 2017<\/p>\n<\/a>Kim Dorland, Portrait of a Landscape (Two Trees), 2017, oil and Inkjet on canvas, 75 x 60 cm<\/p>\n<\/a>Kim Dorland, Bay Blanket # 3, 2014, oil and acrylic on linen over wood panel, 183 x 244 cm.<\/p>\n<\/a>Andrea Williamson, Livable Collaborations I, 2017, watercolour on paper, 50 x 40 cm<\/p>\n<\/a>Erin Loree, Sacred Time, 2017, oil and acrylic on panel, 125 x 100 cm<\/p>\n<\/a>Scott Everingham, Laid Eyes 15, 2017, oil on canvas, 41 x 36 cm<\/p>\n<\/a>Andy Dixon, Patron’s Home (London), 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas, 135 x 105 cm<\/p>\n<\/a>Justin Ogilvie, A View for a Trip’s End, 2017, oil on linen, 91 x 76 cm<\/p>\n