Erica Hawkes | Sky Poetry
April 13 - 27

Artist Reception: Saturday, April 13 @ 3-5 pm
RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

Presales open Saturday, April 6 @ 10 am, in-person, online, and over the phone at 613-729-0003

Wall Space Gallery is proud to present, Sky Poetry, the latest solo exhibition by British Columbia-based landscape painter Erica Hawkes. Drawing inspiration from her surroundings in the
picturesque region of Kelowna, Hawkes captures the ever-changing beauty of Canada’s Western landscape. Her vibrant colour palettes and sinuous curving lines deconstruct the blends of colour and form within the vistas around her. She has termed her approach to form and line ‘Nouveau-Seven’, stemming from her love of the Art Nouveau movement and the Group of Seven, particularly Lawren Harris.

"I love nature and I love art. I feel it was a match made in heaven to get to go out into nature, and then bring my photos home to the studio and create something from this amazing inspiration. I am in love with life!"

- Erica Hawkes

In Sky Poety, Hawkes shares her captivation with the continuously shifting landscape of the sky. In harmonious colour palettes and sharp contrasts of light, as in In Awe of the Moment, she enigmatically depicts the drastic changes brought by each new sunrise and sunset, rolling storm clouds, and the dramatic aura of rays of light breaking through a cloud head. When encountered, these daily shifts in atmosphere have the ability to stop us in our tracks and instill a sense of awe for the world around us.

"I want people to be pulled in by my lines and composition and to stay in the painting and maybe even lose track of time...Like basking in
the sun on a warm spring day, smelling the fresh ozone after a hard rain, or standing under a blooming fruit tree filled with honeybees humming."

- Erica Hawkes

It is these moments of meditative pause that Hawkes hopes to recreate in her paintings, pulling us away from the rush of time into the peace of timelessness. Every skyscape is ephemeral and unable to exist without time’s passing. Continuing Canada’s history of landscape painting, Hawkes offers us the opportunity to exist a little while longer in these fleeting moments.

- Tiffany April, Curator

Erica Hawkes | Sky Poetry Collection

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Erica Hawkes is a Canadian landscape artist. Hawkes paints in a style she refers to as Nouveau Seven, a marriage of the Group of Seven and the Art Nouveau movement of the early 1900s. She is represented in twelve galleries across the country, and has been featured in a variety of art magazines. She was also listed as one the “Artists
to Collect” in the 2016 Fall Arabella magazine.  

Hawkes is working her way into the hearts of Canadians with her contemporary take on beloved Canadian landscapes. Using acrylics on canvas, her art is vibrant and draws in the attention of the viewer with flowing “nouveau” lines and pleasing compositions. Her paintings of recognizable vistas from across the region give
these landscapes a nostalgic, yet contemporary, feeling.

Erica Hawkes grew up in British Columbia. She has been in love with art from the very beginning, and grew up surrounded by the nature so often depicted in her art. She went to school in Colorado for art and design, and graduated in Vancouver with a degree in design. Her experience in drafting and pattern has translated through to the line-work in her skies. Hawkes currently focuses solely on her art career, following her work as a teacher, photographer, portrait artist, and book illustrator. She has been represented professionally since 2011.

Hawkes currently resides in Kelowna, BC with her husband and two children.