With this popular exhibition The Andrew & Laura McCain Art Gallery welcomes the return of Carleton North favourites, James Buxton, Paul Buxton, Phillip Harrington, Shawn Taylor, Roy Tibbits, Kerry O’Toole while welcoming new artists Luc Cyr and Vicky Lentz, Bruce Gray, Craig Dow, Ernest Clark and Stephen Hutchings  to The Andrew & Laura McCain Art Gallery.

“The recurring themes in my designs are deceptive simplicity, elegance and naturalness. When working with wood, I typically start with a tree, processing it into slabs. I follow my primary materials of wood and stone where they take me. My richest and most honest pieces are designed from, and for, the materials. Designs that use exquisite materials and maximize their strong visual assets: natural edge, surface texture and negative space. People often ask if I built it that way, or if it grew like that”.  Bruce Gray

In love for close to two decades, the two artists Luc Cyr and Paula Lentz have combined their passion for the arts and work together forming an amazing artistic duo. “We quickly realized that we were a great team. Luc is the sculptor and Paula the painter. We combine our talents to create beautiful pieces of wood, “they explained in concert. Luc Cyr has been sculpting and shaping wood ever since he was a young boy. As he himself explains, he was born with a knife in his hands. “For the caricature sculptors I use spruce wood as a medium. I work with power tools for my creations. Paula then paints my pieces imaginatively using living colors that transform the work and give it a life”. Luc Cyr and Paula Lentz

Charged with emotion, the work is a reflective reaction to my everyday. Working in a non-representational mode, the results are challenging, inquisitive and colourful but never pretty. The need to express the visions in my mind’s eye is something that could not be ignored and eventually I settled upon acrylic and oils as being the best to express my vision. I continue to explore the corners of my cranium, and strive to express my mind’s musings to my satisfaction”. Craig Smith Dow