MANOLA
Manola Borrajo-Giner was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She began her art career after receiving a BA in Sociology. Her art training includes courses at the University of Colorado and the University of California at Los Angeles. She considers herself a self-taught artist. She moved to Edmonton in 2000. Her natural creativity has been further enriched when she was introduced to glass at Panache. Since 2002, she has been exploring that medium and has created numerous bold and rich pieces. Her technique includes the use of large dots that catch the eye with their detail and work to make her art unique. Nature has been a primary theme in her glass work: poppies, trees and other organic forms. She likes to manipulate glass like wood, her other favourite medium, stretching the boundaries between drama and romaniticism. Glass and Manola are a special mix. Manola's participation in group and solo shows continues to expand, and her work is rapidly gaining recognition and acclaim. "Colours have always been around me, the tropical light of Caracas mixed perfectly with the light of Edmonton... and I love that too."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
IAN SHELDON
The artist. Photography by Darren Greenwood www.dgphotographics.com
Ian Sheldon is a celebrated artist and illustrator, with galleries in England, the United States and Canada, and dozens of books featuring his work. Very much a citizen of the world, Sheldon has lived in South Africa, Singapore and England. He makes his home in Canada where his reputation as a successful Western artist continues to grow. Drawing on inspirations from his place of birth on the edge of the prairies in Canada in 1971, and his time spent in Europe, his paintings are a celebration of his sense of place and spirituality.
While studying for his first degree (BA Hons) at Cambridge University, England, Sheldon began to paint the historical architecture of the city. Since 1994 galleries have exhibited this work, and in 1998, Cambridge Contemporary Art, the city’s leading commercial gallery, accepted his watercolours. He makes frequent trips to Britain and France to pursue his architectural passion.
A self-taught artist, Sheldon believes that his true understanding of artistic self-expression will come best through his own experimentation. Sheldon holds degrees from Cambridge University and the University of Alberta. His studies in the natural sciences are reflected in some of his subject choices, but the learning experience has more importantly taught him about the significant influences in his life. In addition to the
architectural watercolours, Sheldon has directed his interests to the Western Canadian wilderness. This has successfully combined his passion for the arts with his academic interest in the natural world, and his spiritual place within it. These striking landscapes have been well received in Canada and overseas, earning
him First Prize for Landscapes at the Alberta 2000 Winter Games Art Exposition and recognition on a national level in 2004 with the inclusion of his biography in the Canadian Who’s Who. As an extension of the philosophical basis for his landscapes, Sheldon has also turned to exploring people’s connections to the land through the rural architectural landscape. His atmospheric watercolours of decaying buildings have brought both television and magazine attention, and were acquired by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts in a juried acquisition of art.
Sheldon is also an accomplished writer and illustrator with many publications through Lone Pine Publishing. His nature guides for North America now grace bookshelves across the continent. One of his recent successes is Bugs of Alberta, a provincial non-fiction bestseller authored by John Acorn. Many more books featuring Sheldon’s life-like illustrations are slated for the press. Other ventures include a guide for Ecuador, a voluntary project aiming to increase conservation awareness in Ecuador.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TAMMY HENKEL BFA. BAID
Raised in Edmonton, Alberta Tammy had the best of both urban and rural environmnets while growing up. With close ties to rural relatives; nature and wildlife played a large role in developing her artis eye. Artistic abilities run throughout her extended family.
Post secondary education was completed in both Edmonton and Calgary. A Bachelor of Fine Art, Art & Design, was earned in 1004 from the University of Alberta. In 2003 Tammy earned her Bachelor of Applied Interior Design from Mount Royal College, Calgary.
Tammy considers herself an artist first and a designer second: "All design is art; but not all art is design."
She is currently working in the painted glass medium on both flat and self textured large sheets. The work tends towards the abstract and non-objactive now but she has previously pursued high realism. Inspiration is taken from her surroundings, both interiors and exteriors of built environments juxtaposed against more organic rural settings. She captures the essences and emotional qualities, tuning into the subjective versus objective qualities. Photography still holds a place in her heart, but usually ends up as a source book for textures, patterns and colours that she collages into imaginative fantasy worlds.
The work has a strong emotional content for viewers rather than purely literal ones.
Posts
