Deep Water Gallery
A Wiarton and District Chamber of Commerce Initiative
Tanya Markvart:
The Spring Shoreline: What Do You See?
Based on Markvart's photos of the northwest Georgian Bay shore in springtime, The Spring Shoreline series explores the intimate connection between viewer and reality. Each painting infuses subjective meaning into arrangements of bedrock that comprise the landscape. Organic configurations of dolostone and limestone are imbued with purpose, emotion, states of being, and conceptual frames. Adopting a bird’s eye perspective, the series conveys a sense of omniscience and offers the onlooker space for self-reflexivity. For the creator and the viewer alike, the paintings mirror human experience and beg the question, “What do you see in the spring shoreline?"
Tanya Markvart resides in the north Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production from Concordia University and a Master of Environmental Studies and Doctorate in Urban Planning from the University of Waterloo. She is a self-taught painter in the early stage of showing her work. Markvart’s recent paintings explore the connection between our internal (psychological) and external (physical) environments to illuminate how one shapes our experience of the other. Her work draws from dreams and the subconscious, incorporates symbols from nature and various cultures, and gives ordinary objects from everyday life supernatural abilities. Her understanding of today's environmental concerns and her love for ecosystems inform her wildlife paintings, which celebrate the beauty and strength of the plants and animals for whom the north Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula is home. Many of her pieces are completed with acrylic ink on wood panel in order to play with the natural grain.