News
My paintings are available for show and sale with the Secord Gallery, 6301 Quinpool Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Peripheral Visions, June 2016.
I appreciate that the Secord curators, Phil Secord and Wendy Salsman, sponsored my solo show, Peripheral Visions, in June 2016.
In October 2015 I left the Art 174 Hollis Cooperative after being a member for 10 months. I decided to show my work at other venues that better suit the artwork I am currently creating. A number of my paintings are now available at the Teichert Gallery, which is a juried gallery associated with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Teichert Gallery Annual Group Show
A number of my paintings are now available at the Teichert Gallery, which is a juried gallery associated with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Art 1274 Hollis Street Gallery
A show of recent plein air and small acrylic landscape paintings entitled "Natural Selection" was held in August, 2015.
Darwin’s theory of evolution is a metaphor for my recent artistic approach. The wilderness landscape is the culmination of evolution by natural selection over millennia. Many of my recent works have been done outdoors en plein air. Painting directly from nature is a huge challenge. Choosing what and how to paint can feel overwhelming. I have discovered an intuitive approach works best. I paint each brushstroke based on intuition and observation. As brushwork accumulates, the painting evolves and reveals itself. This is what I call ‘natural selection’. Like nature itself, there is no grand design. The final artwork is thus a somewhat surprising outcome of the painting process.
Natural Selection Show, Acrylic on Canvas
Secord Gallery
Quinpool Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Website http://www.secordgallery.com
I am pleased to announce that from 2015, the Secord Gallery will be showing my major artworks. The Secord Gallery represents many fine artists whose work I admire. I will be inspired to create paintings for display alongside the works of these artists.
Plein Air Painting
Over the past year I have devoted more time to plein air painting. I have spent many enjoyable hours with various artist friends in scenic places with paint, brushes and canvas to record my experiences. I have been using both acrylics and oils. It has taken some time to develop a sense of how to paint in these rich ever-changing settings. It is both a challenge and an opportunity to broaden my capabilites to express my response to the Nova Scotia landscape.
Swoon Gallery Closure
I was saddened when Swoon Fine Art closed its art gallery in December 2014. Brandt Eisner, the curator did a wonderful job of showing and selling my paintings over the past few years. Brandt will be maintaining a virtual gallery and curate 'pop up' galleries from time to time I plan to participate in some of Brandt's new art activities.
I am showing these smaller plein air works at an artist run cooperative, Art 1274 Hollis, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The link to their webpage is http://www.art1274hollis.ca/
Calm Seas, Acrylic on Canvas, 12x 16"
Art Battle Nova Scotia Region 2014 Finals
Atlantica Hotel, Halifax, June 20, 2014
I participated in another art battle with a bigger audience and more excitement. I met some very talented artists and a supportive audience. While I was not too satisfied with my painting, I learned something of myself. I also acquired some new ways to paint quickly and expressively in acrylics.
Swoon Show: Common Sensations, April 2014
Critique in the Chronicle Herald, Sat April 12, 2014
Ron Kuwahara, in Common Sensations, offers the best of both worlds: inviting landscapes from a distance, interesting, semi-abstracted surfaces up close.It’s what he’s going after. “I have two main objectives when I paint,” he says in his statement. “At a distance I want to convey a recognizable scene; up close I want abstracted patterns to predominate. I am intrigued how gestural brush marks form recognizable images from afar.”His use of underpainting means colours peek out and Kuwahara is clever and complex with colour. His fluid painting of swipes of yellow and blue are almost hidden in the semi-melting snow of Waiting for Spring, a painting of colourful Halifax houses including a blue-and-yellow one. Kuwahara’s abstractions within the land range from the yellow scrubbed-thin centre of Sunny Glade to the highly patterned, graphic brush strokes in orange and purple in Forest Path. Kuwahara was a research scientist before he switched to art recently, completing his BFA with a major in painting from NSCAD University.
All three exhibits are at Swoon-Fine Art & Antiques, 1410 Hammonds Plains Rd., to April 26.
News article shows "Sunny Glade", oil on canvas, 24"x 36"
Adverisement in Arabella art magazine, 2013
Art Battle 85 – Halifax Birthday All-Stars
Bus Stop Theatre, Halifax, January, 2014
I was invited to participate in another art battle. This time I was a little more prepared and had both an enjoyable and successful experience. I won a round and came in second in the playoff. This means I will have a spot in the Halifax Art Battle Finals in June.
Halifax Nocturne 2013
I had a lot of fun doing live painting at the NS Art Sales and Rental Gallery. Numerous artists worked to create the large painting, which was later auctioned off.
Art Battle
Bus Stop Theatre, Halifax, April 27, 2013
I was part of an Art Battle evening, competing with 11 other artists to create an artwork in 20 minutes, with the audience voting on their favourite paintings. I found the experience challenging but satisfying. I had to address my fears having a big audience watch me work and public scrutiny of my results. The most difficult part was painting from imagination and memory as no props or photography materials were allowed. Hopefully this exp,erience will provide a creative boost to my art practice.
An interview for the Art Battle can be found at
http://artbattle.ca/ron-kuwahara/
Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Swoon Gallery, 1410 Hammonds Plains Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 6- 27, 2013
It was great to see my latest landscape paintings all on display in a large room. It was surprising to see how well the paintings fitted together as a common theme, since I paint them separately and don't see them all at once. I was happy with the many compliments the show received regarding the colour and beauty of the paintings. Having numerous sales was also gratifying.
CBC Sharing the View Calendar
I was pleased to be selected by CBC Nova Scotia's Information Morning as one of the artists for their Sharing the View Calendar project for 2013. The artists are Taiya Barss, Andrea Redmond, Ron Kuwahara, Judith Leidl, Anne Camozzi, Rose Adams, Jack Smith.
This year’s calendar theme is ‘water’. My contribution to the calendar is a scene based on the Frog Pond in Halifax. So much about the natural habitat of Nova Scotia relates to small fresh water lakes, marshes and rivers. My water theme will be ‘’water made visible’ by the abstracted reflection of trees, rocks and grasses that are sustained by water.
Here is a link to the CBC website
http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningns/feature/sharing-the-view-2013/
