Artist Directory
As our Artists are confirmed, this page will provide their information and some samples of their work.
Alison Davidson
Alison Davidson lives and works in Uptown Saint John and can often be found enjoying the heartbeat of the city, a colourful inspiration for any artist. Prior to Covid she enjoyed a studio and gallery space as a member of the Union Street Art Collective. She has since transitioned to her home studio on historic Orange Street.
Alison is experimental in her style, always working to evolve and express through colour, with the goal of conveying energy through her works. She is also described by some as Saint John, New Brunswick’s Maud Lewis - not so much for her painting style, but for her unpretentious approach and vibrant pallet. Her work can be found in public and private collections across Canada.
https://www.instagram.com/allee_dav/#
Alison Gayton
Alison Gayton makes pottery to hypnotize and fascinate you, while soothing and complimenting the adorability of the animals we love. For over twenty years she's been behind the wheel, with clay to the elbows making each functional work iconic. Her sculptural work is personal, figurative and evocative. Now she does all that and more in glorious Hampton.
Alison supports Sculptural Arts and Literacy communities in Southwestern NB by making, teaching, exhibiting and demonstrating art through her business, Alison Gayton Ceramics.
https://alisongayton.com
Andrea Simmonds
I like to paint as though the wind is rushing through me, raindrops are pouring out of my brush, and sunshine is cracking me open. Andrea Simmonds is an artist who focuses on local ecology to inform her work.
Using fieldwork, reference guides, and experience, her work is focused on the intersection of ecology and abstraction. She studies plant relationships with complementary species and then translates that into paintings. Much of her work is focused on the Garry Oak Ecosystem, capturing some of the rare and unique plants it encompasses. Andrea aims to help people better understand this rare ecosystem through the plants that define it.
Andrea Simmonds received her BA from Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, QC. She is currently studying for her MFA at Emily Carr University (2024 candidate). She lives and works in Victoria, British Columbia, on the traditional territories of the Lək‘wəŋən people represented by the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations and the WSÁNEĆ People of the Saanich Peninsula, W̱JOȽEȽEP (Tsartlip), SȾÁU,TW̱ (Tsawout), BOḰEĆEN (Pauquachin), and WSÍ,KEM (Tseycum).
https://andreasimmonds.com
https://www.facebook.com/colinhughsmithartist/
Angela Lane
Nature Inspires Joy
We live in a connected beautiful, awe-inspiring natural world - the light, colour and energy move me. This is my ‘happy place’ and if I listen carefully, I can hear it sing.
Whether I am exploring a new territory on travels or closer to home hiking Ontario trails, kayaking our beautiful lakes or simply digging deep in my gardens, my response is always a general lifting of spirit that feeds a deep-rooted joyful attitude of heart. This is what I hope to share.
The abundance of beauty and energy might be expressed in an explosion of vibrant colour and the quite conversations in nature appear in peaceful lakescapes, a serene seascape or magical skyscapes.
Working in encaustics, I move expressively and freely as I build layer upon layer of fused pigmented beeswax, mark make, and laydown shapes, patterns of colour and texture. As I work through addition and subtraction in diaphanous ethereal layers, rhythms of movement unfold, and the story comes to life in compositions that awaken a memory of a place visited or envisioned.
https://www.angelalanestudio.com/dataviewer.asp
Bob Hunter
I was introduced into the Art of woodturning and the making of segment bowls after retiring in 2010. Woodworking gives me a great feeling of satisfaction and peace. I feel productive and relaxed at the same time. Time gets away from me when I’m working in my shop. I use both native and exotic woods. I marry the various woods together using their unique colours and characteristics to develop one of a kind pieces. The end result often amazes me. The feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment when a piece is polished and ready for display is hard to describe.
Chris Donovan
The Cloud Factory
As a child, I looked up at the smokestacks in my hometown and asked my father if they made all of the world’s clouds. “No,” he replied. “They make money.” It's a common experience in Saint John, a company town that is home to Canada’s largest oil refinery, which has the capacity to process over 320,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The Cloud Factory project reflects on environmental classism in a city that is home to the billionaire Irving family. It is also home to one of the country’s poorest neighbourhoods, with a child poverty rate of approximately 50 percent. Through photographing environmental injustice, and reflecting on my own upbringing, I examine how identity is formed in a community that relies on a harmful industry for survival. The Irving family has monopolized the local economy and until 2021, owned every English-language newspaper in the province. This has created a culture of censorship that has allowed the oil industry to tighten its grip on the community for decades. This project highlights some of the stories that have been left out by this censorship.
One such story is that of Lisa Crandall and her family, who live in the Bayside neighbourhood adjacent to the refinery. In 2018, a butane leak from a pipeline about 200 meters from their home leaked at least 30,000L of the natural gas into their neighbourhood over a 17-hour period. If inhaled, butane can cause nausea, asphyxia and heart disruption. Following the incident and public backlash, Irving Oil reportedly purchased some of the homes that were affected by the evacuations for prices ranging between $80,000 to $110,000. Lisa’s home was not purchased. As a result, her family has lived in fear of further disaster ever since, but cannot afford to move.
Saint John is a microcosm of what is happening on a global scale, as large corporations prey on the poor in search of perpetual profits. These power structures are meant to keep industrial communities sick and marginalized, unable to fight the corporations that are oppressing them.
Chris takes you on a tour of his work in the New Generation Photography Award Exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada - visit.
Christopher Griffin
I have come across patches on sidewalks that express everything I strive for in my work. Colour, texture, pattern, line quality. They also contain a quality of randomness, freeness and freshness. These are visually complete moments. My challenge is to capture this mixture of time and weathering in my own work. Mixing oil paint to imitate the colour and texture of asphalt didn’t make sense, so I now incorporate real asphalt in my work. This has led to a variety of different explorations and discoveries to mesh asphalt with various other mediums. It is exciting for me to apply a coat of wet asphalt to a sidewalk and then collect a print onto a primed canvas. I can never be certain what image will be produced. By giving the initial markings to chance – either a child’s scribbling or a surface of a city sidewalk, I leave myself the task of completing the picture.
The preciousness of a blank canvas is removed from the equation and I am allowed to create an image to my own ideals. Playing and being in the moment are important components of my work. Also important is the variety of situations and environment . Working on a 50′ concrete mural up on scaffolding affects the way I approach a concrete sculpture, which informs the way I create a painting which helps me to create a piece of participatory art which again alters my workings on the concrete mural. Everything I do, informs my other practices and in turn makes them resonate deeper. The contrast in scale and purpose keep me interested and curious.
https://christophergriffin.ca
Colin Hugh Smith
“My artistic strength, and I'm always trying to flex those muscles, comes not from rigorous training in technique but rather from pure intuition, a sense of visual drama, of being blessed with a good eye”.
After graduating from UNB Fredericton with a first class honours degree in English Literature (fine arts minor), he was awarded a full-term M.A. Graduate Assistantship. He completed and successfully defended his thesis, which examined certain aspects of Ezra Pound's London years concerning his involvement in the undercurrents influencing the radical changes which took place in the European art world in the years leading up to 1914, touching on the role of homoeroticism in artistic creation.
In addition to solo shows at Gallery 78 in Fredericton, the former Seacoast Gallery and Sunbury Shores in St. Andrews, the old ABEC in Saint John and the Saint John Arts Centre which it has now become, his work has also appeared at Saint John's Imperial Theatre, the New Brunswick Museum (Art and Artifacts, www.nbm-mnb.ca/ ), the New Brunswick Festival of the Arts, the University of New Brunswick's Student Voices show, and ARTgallery ‘Rat in Queenstown. Also he has appeared in solo and group exhibitions at Cobalt Gallery, the Klausen Gallery, the Fundy Art Gallery, all of Saint John, as well as the Kensington Gallery in Calgary.
https://www.facebook.com/colinhughsmithartist/
Deb Perry
I paint with a palette of pinks, purples and happiness if that were a colour. Painting has such a calming effect on me. To express myself in my own unique language. As a child natural beauty spoke to me…drawn to colour, painting is my best way of interpreting organic beauty that surrounds me in nature. I love taking nothing and making it something rewarding, a thought a feeling, a memory, an event that reflects back on me. It allows me to rise above the everyday struggles of life. And when teaching I find it is very rewarding when I observe individual improvement, and the excitement that is inspired in my students when they discover that they can do something they hadn’t thought possible.
Elizabeth Vickers
Joejene C. Santos
My creative process is very intuitive, consciously engaging, and enjoying the moment of creation. When I work, I love the idea that I do not worry about what it is about, where it is going or how it is going to be put together. I just want to be in my present and feel alive. And yet, I know that within me there is already an image - I just have to bring it out by feeling it.
https://joejeneartstudio.com
Josée Hurteau
I am a painter without paint. Felt is my paint. I love the physical process, the explosion of colours and textures when working with felt and watching my art come to life. Everything that my eyes capture becomes a source of inspiration that influences my felting. I hope my murals bring peace, joy and happiness to those who contemplate them. Women are my favourite subject. It is through their eyes, their energy, their different cultures and their battles that my inspiration finds its source.
https://www.joseehurteau.com
Judith Baxter
Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Judith Baxter studied art at Vocational School with Ted Campbell and Fred Ross. However, it has been far too long since school-days to blame or credit my teachers with my artistic results. “Basically self taught and by intuition I’ve even had to ask how best to clean my brushes!”
Judith is recognized both provincially and nationally as a museum and built heritage advocate and local sage on community heritage issues. As an artist/writer she is recognized for four books; ‘The Magic Seagull’ with Roberta Lee (illustration), ‘845 A Pencil Sketch Tour of the Kingston Peninsula’ (which captures the elegance and winsomeness of old barns and houses in rural NB), ‘Life & Times of Eliza Cox Carter’ with Beth Quigley and editing ‘Clifton Royal: The Wetmores and Village Life in Nineteenth-Century New Brunswick’.
Judith’s work has been collected and exhibited both privately and publicly.
Over the last few years Judith has been inspired to turn her attention to painting natural landscapes with a focus on water, rocks and sky. Working in oil, the new work is rich in detail, movement, and is imbued with a deep sense of place.
https://www.facebook.com/JudithBaxterfineartGallery/
Karen Butler O'Brien
I am a watercolour artist who grew up in a rural community in southern New Brunswick. My childhood home being an area rich in inspiration has resulted in many of my subjects reflecting the beauty found in nature.
Drawing has been a passion of mine from a very young age and when growing up I had the wonderful opportunity to attend many workshops facilitated by my late uncle and prominent local artist, Ray Butler. This is where I developed a special interest in watercolour. I continue to learn new things about the medium and am influenced by many of my favourite artists: Ray Butler, Carl Purcell, David Taylor, Jim Kosvanec and Joseph Zbukvic.
My palette is limited to a variety of transparent watercolours, allowing me to represent a scene with as much luminosity as possible. It is always an experimental process. I like to keep my paintings fresh-looking with minimal details. I plan a scene keeping in mind shapes, values and colour. It is important to me that the viewer sees my interpretation of the scene. Although it is not an easy medium to master, I do like the unpredictability of watercolour and the pleasant surprises it creates.
I enjoy plein air painting because it challenges me to think about what pieces of information to leave out in order to simplify the subject and develop my own unique style. Most of my work however, happens in my home studio and sharing what I have learned from others is most rewarding.
Throughout the years, I have held my own workshops and have taught many private lessons. Painting with fellow artists has proven to be most rewarding. Private collections of my paintings are in homes across Canada and the United States.
Recent Art Shows:
Rothesay Netherwood Annual Art Show & Sale – May 2003 through 2017
Solo show, Art OnThe Beach – August 2012
The Men’s Club of Saint David’s United Church Annual Art Show & Sale – October 2000 through 2011
Solo show, Shadow Lawn, Rothesay, NB - 2007
Taylor College Annual Art Show & Sale – November 2003 & 2004 and April 2005
https://www.karenbutlerobrien.com
Laura Forrester
I am a mixed media visual artist who works primarily with paints, usually acrylic or oil but will often incorporate other media to embellish and exaggerate within my work. These media include sculpture, photography and collage which are used to compliment my painting practice.
Even though I have had success working full-time as an artist for about 8 years, I decided that when my kids started school in September 2019 that I would return to my studies at St Thomas University. I graduated with distinction with an Interdisciplinary Honours Degree with a concentration in Visual Art and was hired as a Teacher’s Assistant in 2021.
Ever inspired by history, without the context of tradition, I look to historical artists that I admire to draw inspiration for my own expression, which works to deepen my own connection to history and connection. My work is constantly evolving as I reach new depths of understanding into my own experience and place in my world.
My work often features a strategic use of bold colour and brush lines. My subject matter is usually organic, mostly people and plants and painted in a way that shows their ephemeral nature.
https://www.lauraforresterstudios.com
Megan Doughty
My work as a jeweller developed out of a general exploration in metal and an initial interest in sculpture. As a student at Haliburton School of the Arts I was drawn into silversmithing, something about the jewellery medium seemed to lend itself so well to storytelling. The keepsake element of it, particularly the embodied energy of a piece worn often and handed down through generations really drew me in. My intention is to make quality pieces that last, that are timeless in design, but can be repaired or even modified in future. I like to employ an interplay between precious materials, like gemstones, and materials often overlooked, like beach stone and string, in an effort to recollect that what is precious has more to do with our relationship to material than any status assigned. The work is made using traditional smithing techniques, it is slow, and as much about the process as the result. I hope what is reflected is my love of the process, and the wellspring of peace and energy it provides me. I live and work on the Kingston Peninsula in New Brunswick, but originally come from Ontario.
https://www.fallowmetals.ca
https://www.instagram.com/fallowjewellery/
Melanie Craig-Hansford
Melanie Craig-Hansford lives in Erbs Cove, N.B. on the Belleisle Bay. She is on the Board of Directors of The Arts and Culture Centre of Sussex where she teaches painting and drawing.
In 2016 she had an art show called Stone by Stone at the centre where she showed her landscape paintings with the stone sculptures of Sheila Watters. She does commission work and one of her paintings hangs in Alaina Lockhart’s office,
Melanie has a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Art Education from NSCAD University in Halifax, NS. She taught high school visual art for 27 years in Kingston Ontario and retired in 2014. When she retired she moved back home to the Maritimes and settled in Erbs Cove.
Before moving back she had no idea how important the landscape of this part of the province was to her. The light, the colour, the shoreline, the rock, the Bay of Fundy and the trees show up in her work whether she is painting realistically or abstractly. Melanie’s visual interpretation of this journey home, her environment and the colour and light that is so unique to southern NB is what calls out to her to be painted.
https://melaniecraig-hansford.com
Natalie Chanel
Natalie Chanel is a textile historian and mixed media artist who grew up in South Carolina. As a child, she was drawn to colourful patterns on her great-grandmother’s quilts and the stories that accompanied them. Chanel has been creating with her hands from early childhood and her love for art has taken many different forms over the years. As an artist, Chanel aims to create mixed media pieces that represent a multilayered aesthetic by combining her love for architecture, cultural anthropology, and environmentalism. Working with natural materials represents both complexities and the simplicity of nature. Chanel's work incorporates culturally relevant found materials and features a variety of man-made ephemera. The geographical wall art is inspired by her international travels and the notion of upcycling materials through a sustainability lens.
https://rusticauraart.com/
Phil Savage
Phil Savage is a sculptor of wood and stone and a maker of fine furniture. His sculptural style is decidedly smooth and organic. It is often an exploration of nature in action, with forms like decaying seed pods or abstract groupings of animals. His furniture is influenced by the Danish Modern style and draws heavily from his practice as a sculptor. Savage works from a studio situated on the family farm in Kingston, NB and divides his time between production items, gallery pieces and custom orders.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071114636278
Sheila Howell
Sheila is a professional artist and has been painting full time since 2012, when she decided to leave her home studio for a more professional space. Her current studio at 146 Germain Street is open by appointment or chance. There you will find several works on display and it is also where she gives private lessons and hosts “Painting Parties” for grown ups.
Sheila is a former member of Saint Paul's Community Art Club, the Fundy Gallery of Art and The Jailhouse Gallery. She has also participated in the Kings County Studio Tour. Her work has been shown in several Saint John and area art shows. Over the years, Sheila's paintings have been exhibited at LaBoheme Gallery, The New Artisan Studio, Dunham's Run Winery, The Foxes Den, and at Retro and Rust.
In January and February, 2012, she had a solo show at Millennium Gallery. In June/ July, 2015, Sheila was part of a two person show at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, Fredericton. In February and March, 2017, she had a solo show at the Imperial Theatre, Saint John.
Artist Statement:
I love to paint. Painting is a very important part of who I am and I find I express myself best through my abstract and surrealist works. I love how almost every viewer will take something different from a nonrepresentational work. These are works which come from almost a subconscious level and are usually painted in an intuitive style as I rarely have a preconceived idea of what the end result will be.
I also love to paint what I have observed. Even with my more realistic works, I am never really sure what the end result will be as I often move, add, subtract or add to a scene and I will sometimes totally create my own little world to escape into.
I have an unquenchable thirst to better my art and this leads me to push myself in new directions and explore new medium or to create new ways to use medium I am already familiar with.
