ELORA – A new one-man art show, Light and Solitude, will be coming to the Elora Centre for the Arts (ECFTA)later this month.
Elora artist Barry McCarthy is set to showcase 35 landscape paintings inspired by his travels.
“You’re going to see some watercolour and oil [paintings],” McCarthy told the Advertiser.
He noted some of the landscapes are based on the nature in Elora.
“There’s some big pieces of the [Elora] Gorge,” McCarthy added.
The free exhibit is set to run from Jan. 22 to March 8, with an opening reception on Jan. 25 from 2 to 4pm.
“Some of the pieces have never been exhibited … so that’s going to be interesting,” McCarthy said.
Other paintings were inspired by Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and southern Ontario, including Kitchener and Waterloo.
“There’s going to be a real variety,” McCarthy said.
The paintings will be available for sale, ranging from $1,200 to $10,000.
The show’s title was inspired by McCarthy’s passion to “search for the light,” he said.
“When you have sunlight, you have shadow … and that’s very powerful because your eye tends to go to the highlighted areas,” McCarthy said.
“Then you play the light areas off the dark areas and create some drama.”
“Seeing the light bouncing off the water [is] huge for me, I love that,” he added. “It’s not easy to paint but that’s the reason why I do it.”
McCarthy has been an artist for over four decades and has had a passion for art since grade school.
“I had two amazing teachers, one from grade school and one from high school,” he said.
The two teachers encouraged McCarthy instead of “breaking him down” as others might.
“I had an amazing high school teacher that [encouraged] me,” McCarthy explained.
“He’s passed on now but when I graduated from high school he and his wife would come visit me in university … and he’d buy me watercolours to keep me going.”
“He always said ‘You’re going to make it, you’re going to be somebody someday,’ and I always hung my hat on that.”
Although his passion was consuming, McCarthy knew he would need another source of income.
He became a high school and university teacher, sharing his skills in watercolour, oils, sculpture, pottery, drawing and “always with a component of art history,” McCarthy said.
He noted it was a perfect career, as he could use his summer off to focus on painting.
“I still love teaching [and] I still get emails from my [students] 20 years later,” McCarthy said.
Before living in Elora he spent some time in Fergus.
McCarthy noted what made him move and stay in Elora was the bubble of artists that have come and gone.
“There’s still a lot of really good artists in this area [and] I’m proud to be part of this community,” he said.
“I think we have something really special here.”
