Roberts Creek artist Gordon Halloran, known worldwide for his public art paintings in ice (www. paintingsbelowzero.com) has been invited to create an installation of floating paintings, Lotus in Motion, at an exhibit in the Tuileries Garden in Paris. Lotus en Mouvement will be showcased in a garden pond as part of an exhibition called Jardins, Jardin between May 31 and June 3 in the gardens around the Louvre. (www.jardinsjardin.com).
Partnered with The Louvre and the Tuileries Garden, Jardins, Jardin is a national event in the heart of Paris dedicated to outdoor design and the art of living in the garden, an exhibition of creativity and innovation.
Eliane and Michel Cumet, landscape architects of a company called Pastille, have partnered with Halloran to exhibit Lotus en Mouvement in one of the 20 featured gardens of the exhibition. Additionally, Pastille will market these individual paintings designed for personal ponds, pools and water features. Halloran will design the exhibit for Jardins, Jardin.
Locally, on April 15, Halloran will open an exhibit of paintings for indoor exhibit called Meditation on Lotus: Family at Yoga by the Sea in Roberts Creek. These wall paintings began the artists exploration of the floating paintings that have become Lotus in Motion.
Meditation on Lotus: Family will include early paintings exhibited at the Miami International Art Fair and Art Palm Beach, 2011, where Halloran was invited to be the featured artist in pubic art. Some of the lightweight paintings exhibited in Miami, which floated in the air, attached by a mere string, will be displayed at the Yoga by the Sea as well as the mixed media paintings in cradled panel.
In creating this artwork, Halloran studied the patterns and hues of nature surrounding the lotus in the garden. His observation that every shape and pattern in nature can be found in permutations in other organic materials is expressed on the surface of each painting thorough the colours and textures of landscape flora and fauna.
The paintings are grouped in families, distinctive by their colour and pattern. The juxtaposition of the different lotus families creates a visual impression of the connectedness of all organic matter. With these paintings, the artist expresses this observation of linkages and shared characteristics, as well as the relationships that humans create and call family.
Halloran will be in attendance at a special reception this Sunday, April 15, from 3 to 5 p.m. at Yoga by the Sea.
A related event, hosted by Caitlin Hicks, will take place at The Arts Building in Gibsons on Friday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m. with a variety of writers reading poems and short pieces on the broad theme of family.
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