“Continuum” Joyce Woods new paintings at Havana Gallery

By Camilla Lade
Fit into the intimate gallery space at Havana gallery 1212 Commercial Drive this new exhibition of 15 oil paintings was designed for Havana’s gallery dimensions as a "panoramic" piece. The show can be perceived a single unit comprised of several elegant individual paintings (each measuring 5’ tall by approximately 3’ or 4’’ wide).

Joyce Woods’ paintings span 58 1/2' of the perimeter of the gallery in a continuous sweep—allowing the viewer to ponder larger themes of life’s "Continuum" while revealing in the textures of the artist’s grasses and dramatic sky. The viewer is literally engulfed in the beautiful imagery of the artist.

The work she produces tends to be very representational. It is realistic in a sense that it doesn’t present reality like a photograph but instead uses imagery to present a theme. In this show she uses dramatic landscapes, with intense colours. It starts out in a hollowed space on the left, then moves clockwise, to paintings of yellow roses, fish (a symbol of life), loves poems in sand, three crows (death), and in the final panels, a child and dancers.

“As a child I would hollow out a nest in a field of tall grass in summer to make a place to lay down to think and to dream…of the sky…of dried flowers coming back to life…of small, perfect fish…of love poems written in exotic languages sinking into sand…of living and dying; beginning and ending…of going home.” (Joyce Woods artist statement 2006)

Joyce Woods has mounted over 25 exhibitions (in Vancouver, Edmonton, Seattle, and Germany) over the past several years. "Continuum" is the first one where the artist has presented her work in this format; one likely derived from her past several years’ working intermittently as a scenic artist painting large backdrops in the local film industry. Because of the large backdrops in film, Joyce also uses a large format that fits in with the gallery space. It is the 'continuum’ of life that Joyce means to express through this show.