CANMORE – From animals to vibrant autumn trees, mountain scenes and ocean waves, Gillian Quinn’s paintings display it all in this month’s gallery at the Canmore Art Guild (CAG).
Growing up in South Africa, Quinn developed a taste for art through studying art history in high school where Egyptian and Greek art caught her interest.
She began painting small watercolour pieces but after being married, having kids, and moving to Canada, life got in the way for a while until she decided to pick up the brush again and paint with acrylics.
Quinn’s paintings usually start from a photograph that she took because something caught her eye, whether it was the high contrast between shadow and light or the bold colours. Some of her paintings are from places like Mexico or Newfoundland and Labrador, but some are local areas as well like Rummel Lake in Kananaskis Country.
“I like the contrast between the shadow and the white of the snow. ... I also liked the darkness as the trees go back against the brightness of the yellow the trees,” Quinn said while pointing at a painting that has fluffy white snow below an abundance of vibrant yellow trees that contrast the dark background.
Once Quinn has the scene in mind, she likes to begin with the basic shapes of the scene followed by the initial painting. She then usually leaves it on a wall for around a week or two to make all the final touches.
“Often when you’re painting, you’re thinking 'Oh my goodness, this isn’t any good'. So, then you stand back from it, or what I do is I will put it in my living room just so that I can see … and then when you look at it, you see where you can make improvement,” said Quinn.
The gallery features 15 paintings, with one sold already, two of which are acrylic, and the rest are oil as Quinn now primarily paints in oil.
Looking into the future Quinn wants to attempt painting outdoors with her scene in front of her as well as abstract scenes which she believes will make for quite the challenge, but as it’s her hobby she’s not going to put too much pressure on that idea.
“I do it for fun. I just paint for me as a hobby. And I really enjoy it,” said Quinn.
Quinn’s paintings will be available for viewing until Aug. 27 in Elevation Place in the Canmore Art Guild.
