Debbie Sleeman and Louis Vadeboncoeur: Body and Soul (Offsite)

Fritzi Gallery – Debbie Sleeman and Louis Vadeboncoeur have teamed up for a group exhibition entitled Body and Soul.  This exhibition will run from January 10 to February 18, 2017.

January 10 – February 18, 2017

Vernissage: Tuesday January 10, 2017, 6 – 8 p.m.

The Ottawa School of Art is proud to present the work of Diploma Students:

Louis Vadeboncoeur and Debbie Sleeman

Both Louis and Debbie came to the Ottawa School of Art after years of creating objects with their hands; in Vadeboncoeur’s case, turned wood and painted vases while Sleeman created plates and bowls in glass. This engagement with materials is reflected in their art work.

In this exhibit, Vadeboncoeur’s work suggests materiality in the texture and form of his figures as well as the soft folds of the background fabric or the paddle as it strokes the lake water. Sleeman’s non-objective paintings are built up from many layers of colour and a range of materials such as cheesecloth, pumice, sand, acrylic gels and mediums. The textures generated from this multi-media approach create depth and energy. In the dialogue between the abstract and the figure both can advance their art by learning from each other.

“Exhibiting our work together creates something more than the sum of our paintings.” – Debbie Sleeman, Louis Vadeboncoeur

Debbie Sleeman

Artist Biography:

Debbie Sleeman is an Ottawa based artist who works primarily with acrylic paints and kiln formed glass. Sleeman grew up in Val Caron, Ontario, which is a very, very small town north of Sudbury. She has lived in Ottawa for over 35 years and during that time she has experimented with many art forms and techniques. She enjoys combining travel with her artmaking process; creating many watercolour sketches and studies, abroad, for further exploration at home. Sleeman also spends much time creating numerous artworks in glass using the kiln in her basement.

Since retiring from the Federal Public Service in 2011 full-time, Sleeman has attended part-time studies in the Fine Art Diploma Program at the Ottawa School of Art, where she works primarily with acrylic paints. She has also attended various kiln forming workshops at the Corning Museum of Glass Studio in Corning, New York.

Ms. Sleeman’s work can be found in private collections in the Ottawa area.

For more information, please contact debbiesverre@gmail.com.

Artist Statement:

In this series of mixed media paintings I have explored materiality as a way of creating depth, interest, and richness of colour. I purposely created a woven tapestry of acrylic paint, gel mediums, cheesecloth, molding paste, crackle, pumice, and/or sand. By overlaying and overlapping paint and material, new textures, shapes, and colour interactions have appeared.

The starting point for each painting is shapes and forms found in nature but the non-objective style allows the painting to develop its own character released from the dictates of representational form. The dialogue between colour, shape and texture inform and move the painting forward.

Debbie Sleeman

Curriculum Vitae:

EDUCATION:

• Diploma from the Ottawa School of Art (June, 2017)
• Glass workshops in Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, Espace Verre in Montreal, Quebec, Red Deer College, Red Deer Alberta, Pate de Verre with Bullseye Glass in London, Ontario
• Painting Classes at St. Lawrence College, Brockville, Ontario
• Mathematics Degree Co-op, Waterloo, Ontario

COLLECTIONS:

• Various private collections in Ottawa, Waterloo and Toronto

Louis Vadeboncoeur

Artist Biography:

Louis is a wood artist come painter. Born in Montreal in the 50’s, trained as an engineer he was initiated to pottery in his 20’s. Later in life he came back to three dimensional arts by completing a cabinet making certificate in the early 2000’s while initiating himself to woodturning. His painted turned wood art was shown in internationals competitions and exhibitions, art galleries and SOFA Chicago. Many of his pieces reside in private collections.

Vadeboncoeur is in his last year of the Ottawa School of Art’s Fine Art Diploma Program. His work in the Fine Art Program is leading him to explore portraiture and more specifically human relations through several artistic media, including drawing and painting.

For more information, please contact louis.vadeboncoeur@gmail.com

Artist Statement:

The portraits I paint are a journey in the essence of relations. In this series I explore, relations the subject has with his or her environment.   Each is presented in a manner that reflects their interests, what they like to do best and how they want to relate to the people they know. I tried to put myself in their place to imagine how they would like to be perceived by others and at times by their public. Hopefully these paintings will engage the viewer to imagine who these people are, their values and aspirations. These paintings are also telling of the relations I have with each one of them.

Louis Vadeboncoeur 

Curriculum Vitae:

Arts education

• Ottawa School of Art, diploma program (June, 2017)
• Cabinet making program, Algonquin College (2011)
• Trained as a woodturner:
  • Completed several practicum with master woodturners in Canada and the US.
  • Taught woodturning at l’École d’ébénisterie of Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, 2010-11
  • My work focuses on the creation of unique turned wood vases combining elegant classic forms, the beauty of precious woods, the reflective nature of glass and abstract painting.

Exhibitions

• Solo painting exhibition – Lee Matsai Gallery, Ottawa, (November 2016)
• Four of my prints were presented at the Sixth International Miniature Exhibition held at the Ottawa School of Art (March, April 2016)
• Wood turning exhibitions:
  • Totally Turning Exhibition, Saratoga Springs New York, USA, 2013 (First prize for carving, honorable mention for turned pieces)
  • Rising from Within Exhibition – American Association of Woodturners International exhibition, Phoenix Arizona, 2014.
• Small Treasures Exhibition – Del Mano Art Gallery of California, 2013
• SOFA Chicago international exhibition (Sculptured objects Functional Art – http://www.sofaexpo.com/), Chicago 2014). My collaborative turned wood art piece was presented by the Riley Art Galleries (http://www.rileygalleries.com/htm/index.htm)

Louis Vadeboncoeur

Curriculum Vitae:

Publications

• Featured artist of the Collectors of Wood Art, April 2016. collectorsofwoodart.org
  • The magazine Creative Wood New Zeland published an article on my work, Fall 2014

Scholarships

• Recipient of the Ottawa school of Art ScribArt Painting Scholarship, June 2016

December, 2016