16" x 20"
Colored pencil on wood 2023
@lkheaney
Classically trained and based in Hamilton, Ontario, Laura Heaney is a multifaceted artist equipped with a diverse skill set. She can usually be found sitting in the same position for hours while perfecting the most minute detail in a painfully crafted drawing or clad in paint-covered overalls as she enlivens a canvas with swaths of acrylic. Her themes, mediums and subject matter vary, but her works share a distinct combination of traditional techniques and subjects, often found in the Renaissance and Romantic eras, combined with more contemporary motifs and accessible materials. Laura is as likely to pick up a coloured pencil as she is a brush or a dip pen. Bolstering a visual arts education with studies in both history and art history, it is easy to see how her love of the old-meets-new developed in her artistic practice. Her work has been represented in galleries and shows throughout Southern Ontario, the Canadian Maritimes, Quebec and New York.
THE STORY:
Inspired by the single-candle chiaroscuro paintings that were so prevalent in the Dutch Republic during the mid-17th century, these drawings in the Screen Time series depict varying subjects lit only by their chosen device. Replacing the traditional candle with ubiquitous technological companions maintains the intense shadows, but the once warm and pensive light source has transitioned to a cooler and more clinical ambience. Painstakingly reproducing these subjects in excruciating detail is a time consuming undertaking that stands in direct contrast to the quick pace associated with the depicted technology.
Conventional chiaroscuro oil paintings are a widely recognizable depiction of what many consider high art. By foregoing the classic medium and drawing these pieces in coloured pencil, Heaney is playing with expectation and challenging the concept of what is or isn’t high art. While traditional drawings would be exhibited framed behind glass, drawing these pieces on wood panels allows them to be hung as they are, unfettered and open to the air, further mimicking their painted counterparts.
*Please note: Purchased works are available for pickup on Sat. Oct 5th from 12-3pm, otherwise, arrangements will be made between collectors and buyers directly following the Art Circuit.