MainWorks Artists Cooperative
For over twenty years, MainWorks Artists’ Studios Cooperative has provided studio space for visual artists in Ottawa. Originally located on Main Street, in 2000 the group moved to the Crichton Cultural Community Centre at 200 Crichton Street in New Edinburgh. Fifteen artists work from light-filled studios on the top floor of the former Crichton Street School.
This year marks the opening of the new Corridor Gallery. Initiated by the Crichton Cultural Community Centre in collaboration with MainWorks, this venue provides local artists with the opportunity to exhibit their art in a diverse setting.
At the Open House each November, MainWorks invites the public to visit the studios, meet the artists and view their extraordinary art.
La coopérative d’ateliers d’artistes Mainworks procure depuis plus de vingt ans des ateliers aux artistes visuels d”Ottawa. Á son origine à la rue Main, le groupe déménage en l’an 2000 au Centre culturel communautaire Crichton qui se trouve à 200 rue Crichton dans le quartier de New Edinburgh. Quinze artistes travaillent dans des ateliers éclatants de lumière situés à l’étage supérieur de l’ancienne école de la rue Crichton.
Cette année est marquée par la naissance de la nouvelle galerie du corridor. Cet effort mutuel entre le Centre culturel communautaire Crichton et Mainworks permet à des artistes locaux d’exposer leurs oeuvres dans un endroit hors du commun.
Lors de la porte ouverte qui a lieu chaque année en Novembre, le groupe invite le public dans ses ateliers afin de rencontrer les artistes et de voir leurs remarquables oeuvres.
Mainworks Artists:
Anne Alcorn – Karen Bailey - Frances Caswell-Routhier – Alberta Dickson - John Jarrett – Pierre Lagalisse - Liz Minnes - Corinne Nieuwburg – Susan Parisien – Karen Rasmussen
Current Exhibitions
The Dutch Connection: An exhibition by painter Corinne Nieuwburg
Presented at the Bytown Museum Community Gallery from April 17 to May 30, 2010
Vernissage: April 16, 2010 from 5:00 to 8:00pm;
Mr. Wim J.P. Geerts, Ambassador of The Kingdom of The Netherlands in Canada, will be present.
“Over the years, I have found my own love and deep respect for Canada and Canadians. This is something that I was unable to fully grasp at the time of immigrating, despite the many moving War stories that I was told as a child.” Corinne Nieuwburg
The Dutch Connection is an intimate look at the artist’s family heritage, and how it has influenced her life and her art. With the paintings, documentation, and artefacts displayed in this exhibition the artist takes the viewer on a visual journey down a historical and culturally diverse path.
About the Bytown Museum:
Located in the heart of downtown Ottawa, the Bytown Museum explores the stories of an evolving city and its residents from its early days as Bytown to present day Ottawa. The Museum is located at the Rideau Canal locks between Parliament Hill and the Château Laurier—one of the most picturesque sites in the city. For more information, visit www.bytownmuseum.ca
Admission Price:
Regular Museum admission applies: $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and students (age 13 to 18 or with valid student ID), $3 for children between 5 and 12, and $15 for families (two adults and three children). Admission is free of charge for children under 5 and for Members of the Bytown Museum.
The Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Anne Alcorn
Anne was born in Digby, Nova Scotia and raised in Halifax, Dartmouth. She moved to Ottawa and was a civil servant until 2001 when she left to become a full-time artist.
Anne works mainly in acrylics, which she paints with a strong textural background combined with soft layerings of colour. This creates tension between the trees of her forests and the landscape that embraces them, replicating the yin and yang of nature. The paintings are not of a specific place, or time, but still communicate a special somewhere that we have experienced, if only in our mind. Mathematics is also integrated in some of Anne’s paintings. “I like to reflect the orderliness of mathematics within the randomness of nature. I have always been interested in math and I find it quite satisfying to incorporate this into an art form.”
A member of MainWorks for the past 6 years, Anne’s work can always be found in her studio, at the top of the stairs on the second floor of the 4C’s. She is also represented in Toronto by Canvas Gallery and Gallery 133, as well as Cube Gallery in Ottawa.
She can be contacted by phone 819-671-6540 or by email at annealcorn@gmail.com.
Karen Bailey
Gwen Serving, Acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20", 2008
Karen Bailey paints people. Many of her works feature behind-the-scenes workers and under-recognized people. As an appointed military artist (CFAP 2006-07) she traveled to Afghanistan in June 2007, becoming one of only a handful of Canadian women artists to enter theatre (past and present). In Kandahar, she documented military medical personnel caring for wounded Afghan men and children at the Role 3 Hospital.
Self-Portrait on Hercules, Acrylic and Gold Leaf on canvas, 30" x 30", 2007
Past series have highlighted the working life of servers and hairstylists, “Blanche Dot Doris”, focused on older women who prepare food for church functions while her “Marjorie” paintings celebrated the life of friend and former neighbour, Marjorie Gray.
Past work has included courtroom drawing for Global and CBC Television, book illustration for Appletree Press, U.K., heraldic art and calligraphy. Twice she has received the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grants for drawing and painting. She has exhibited in Britain, Ireland, USA and Canada. In Ottawa, Bailey is represented by Dale Smith Gallery.
Frances Caswell-Routhier
Frances was born in Ottawa and grew up in Québec with the exception of a few years in Germany.
Frances’ full time occupation is creating art from her studio at MainWorks. Working in oil she creates complex abstractions and somewhat simple visceral landscapes. She explores both organic and geometric forms in earthy colour tones inspired from the History of Art and the ephemeral qualities of Nature. Her work practice extends from drawing to three-dimensional installation.
In 2002 Frances earned a bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Ottawa and has had several exhibitions in the Ottawa area, Vancouver and U.S.A. Her recent solo show at L’Imagier underlines the temporal aspect of nature which reminds us of our own passage in time. Nature bears its own markings which depict the flowing, the draining and the evolution of time. Through investigation, recording, archiving and collecting, Frances recalls her past into the present.
Email: Fc-r@sympatico.ca
Alberta Dickson
Alberta is a painter of people and landscape, and works primarily in oils and acrylics. She cites the twin influences on her work of an upbringing where art and a steady observation of nature were encouraged, and a career in education, where watching people was ‘a constant pleasure, and happily, part of the job’. Presently, she is involved in the local arts community, editing a monthly newsletter for the Ottawa Art Association.
Alberta’s early life was spent on the shores of Lake Ontario near Toronto and later on the rolling farmland of Bruce and Grey Counties. The moods of water and the interrelationship of the elements of nature have been constant themes in her paintings. Essentially a colourist , Alberta is also interested in portraying the immediacy of a particular moment in time—full of potential, sometimes ambiguous.
She uses a rich and varied palette to explore change and decision in the dynamic relationships of her subjects.
After studying Arts and Education at the University of Toronto, Alberta taught in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia before settling in Ottawa. In Ottawa, she studied at the Ottawa School of Art in portrait, landscape, and sculpture with Robert Hyndman, Rob Hinchley, and Mark Marsters. She took rural painting workshops in the Charlevoix, and in Gaspe with Ghitta Caiserman. In 2003 she studied old masters’ painting techniques for six months.
Alberta works from her studio with Mainworks Artists’ Cooperative. She has participated in solo shows at the Cumberland Gallery, Ottawa, and Francesco’s Coffee Company, as well as a number of group shows, with Artemisia, Bottom Line Drawing Group at the Britannia Art Gallery, and with the Ottawa Art Association, winning second prize at the juried awards show in 2004. In 2006 and 2007, her work was displayed at Soup’Herbe in Old Chelsea. Her paintings can be seen at the Ottawa Art Gallery in its Sales and Rental Section, online at ottawaartassoc.ca, and at her studio by appointment.
Phone: (613) 730-2310
Email: albertadickson@magma.ca
John Jarrett
When John Jarrett retired from a career in education, he enrolled in the Diploma Program at the Ottawa School of Art. On completion of this three year program, he continued his association with the School as a Board member.
Ottawa is John’s home town. He enjoys depicting its older neighbourhoods and its green spaces and rivers. He also spends many happy hours painting in the Gatnieau Hills and the rural areas around the city. Portrait painting and drawing are among his interests. He paints largely in oils.
John also runs the very successful Figure Painting and Drawing Workshop at the CCCC and has recently become a member of the CCCC Board of Directors.
Pierre Lagalisse
PIERRE LAGALISSE
Pierre began creating visual art as young teenager on the strength of his natural talent. Utilizing a broad range of materials and techniques acquired through formal instruction, workshops and experimentation, he has created hundreds of original works utilizing; oil, egg-oil emulsion, egg-tempera, acrylic, watercolour, free-form stained glass, and sculpture.
His art can be found in private and corporate collections and many commissions have been completed. The artist’s work is dominated by his interpretation of both landscapes and urban streetscapes. Whenever possible he prefers to study subjects in a natural setting and complete quick sketches or “plein air” watercolour studies. These studies are often transformed into larger works in the studio.
He began showing his art in the early 1980’s in Montreal. Between 2001 and 2004 Pierre participated in regular workshops in the studio of Toronto artist Catherine Hobart. He moved to Ottawa in 2004 and joined MAINWORKS ARTIST COOPERATIVE. He maintains his studio at the Crichton Cultural Community Centre located at 200 Crichton Street. Pierre exhibits his work at his studio, at the annual Mainworks Artists’ exhibition held in the fall, and at other venues in the Ottawa region. Details of his upcoming shows may be found on his website.
Telephone: 613 721 2145
Email: pierre_lagalisse@hotmail.com
Website: www.pierrelagalisse.ca
Liz Minnes
Liz has been an active artist in the Ottawa region for over 25 years. She has been integral to the running of “MainWorks” artists Studios co-op for the past nine years, where she has a studio with sixteen local artists. She has also been involved in teaching at the Ottawa School of Art, Ottawa Community centers and the Nepean Visual Art Centre. Prior to receiving her degree from Carleton University, she studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
She is primarily an acrylic painter, often using mixed media. She is known for her bold use of colour Her work ranges from figurative to abstract. Colour its effects and symbology are of great importance for they support her search for the visual metaphors that will go beyond mere appearance, in order to reflect energy, memory and essence.
As of late her practice has been focused on her thoughts surrounding the weaving of our lives, the acknowledgement of the connections between us all, the visible and invisible pathways, threads and energies that circulate between us. She has become sensitized to the tenuous nature of life and the energy of spirit and the nature of our connectedness.
Email: taprte@rogers.com
Corinne Nieuwburg
Corinne Nieuwburg was born in the Netherlands and came to Canada at the age of eleven. Inspired by the oil paints bequeathed to her by her grandfather, she paints people from life as well as her imagination.
Corinne’s portrait “Last Summer of Innocence” was selected for the 2005 Ottawa School of Art Calendar, several paintings from her “White Collar Series” were exhibited in 2005 at the Ottawa School of Art for the exhibition entitled “Portraits in Circumstance”, and in 2006 her works were part of the Group Exhibition on the theme of “Intimacy” at the Centre d’exposition l’imagier (Gatineau ).
Corinne exhibits her paintings regularly at Mainworks Studios where she continues to be a member; as well she works on various commissions.
Contact Corinne at cnieuwburg@rogers.com
Susan Parisien
Susan Parisien is a Registered Nurse who has had a lifelong interest in art. She started later in life to make art a priority and began by taking basic drawing and painting classes at the Ottawa School of Art in 2000. This has progressed into participation in the workshops offered by the 4Cs at the Crichton Public School, in Ottawa, Canada.
She joined Mainworks Artist Studio’s in 2003, and maintains a working Studio in Ottawa, Canada.
Susans ambition is to continue to work in acrylic and to explore colour, form and composition while continuing to develop her skills as an artist. Susan is currently painting florals, figures and landscapes in a multi layer freeform style.
Karen Rasmussen
Karen wants her art viewers to experience a connection between the emotional and the conceptual. Her work usually focuses on some of our common desires and fears. Desires like: belonging, independence, and worth. Fears like (the usual suspects): loss, failure, and death. Her 3-dimensional pieces often involve evocative forms — a transparent quilt, a prairie sky that folds up, or a pair of acrobatic chairs. Karen’s constructing process can bring together unlikely materials and methods — bars of soap and carpentry, or stove-pipe wire and sewing. Often a piece will begin from a personal artifact she has recovered. Her 2-dimensional work includes drawing and lithography — usually body-based and sensual; and painting — strong, non-representational oils.
Karen holds a BFA (Studio) and an Honours BA in Art History and Theory from the University of Ottawa. She joined Mainworks in 2004 to concentrate on her visual art work. Her previous careers and studies were in art history research, graphic design, and cultural policy development. Karen’s work has been shown at cube gallery (Ottawa), Gallery 115 (University of Ottawa), the Ottawa School of Art, and at Mainworks Open Houses, held in their studios at the Crichton Cultural and Community Centre.
You can contact Karen at: vistas@travel-net.com
