Janice Mason Steeves

Poem Series: 10110  12x12" oil/cold wax on panel © Janice Mason Steeves 2010 My exhibition, Poems from the Moon Garden opened on Friday night at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville, Ontario.   The show continues until November 7th.  Here are a few of the installation shots before and during the show. Abbozzo Gallery Owner- Ineke Zigrossi With artist friend, Shirley Williams on the right My painting of the past several years has been strongly influenced by the archetypal concept of pilgrimage.  This current work has increasingly become more experimental and exploratory, turning inward and moving toward abstraction.  As I began this body of work, I decided to drop all my known reference points—to step off the edge of what is familiar to me.  In Buddhism, this attitude of setting aside, for the time being, preconceived ideas, beliefs and expectations is known as 'beginner's mind". Beginner's mind is like a child’s mind, just present to explore and obse...

This past weekend I had a wonderfully enthusiastic and intense group of students for my Oil and Wax workshop at my studio.  Here are some images of the studio cleaned up for the workshop, with some of my new work on the walls. I've been working long, long hours, almost obsessively this summer, creating a new body of work that is becoming non-objective. It's been an incredibly powerful summer of work.  I read once in the book, "A Prayer for Owen Meany " by John Irving.....and this is not a quote but a remembering...that if you stand in the way of the gods, they will go with you.  I feel like I have been swept along this summer in a wind so strong that I've had no choice but to go with it.  I'm getting ready for my show at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville which opens October 22nd. But meanwhile it was a fabulous class here at the studio.  Much sharing and learning happened and some really exciting work was produced. We talked during the workshop about the d...

Here are three recent paintings that are currently on the walls at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville, Ontario as part of the Ontario Society of Artists, "OSA Summer Exhibitions". I continue to work on the series, "Evening on the Lake of Dreams". The myth that accompanies this work is on my website . I went to the opening last night on a fabulous warm summer evening. There are five Oakville Galleries involved in this exhibition, so it made for a wonderful gallery walk to see all of the work in each gallery.