On Saturday October 8th, I attended the opening reception of visual artist Meghan Sims's Colour Blind Colour at the Kitchener Public Library (Central Library). I visited Meghan in the studio last month while she was working on this series. If you haven't read that post as yet, you can do so here.
Each painting had a source photograph beside it and guests were instructed to compare hues from photograph to painting, noting whether or not the colours or intensity of values matched. Once this step was complete, they were invited to set their cameras to black and white, or tonal view to see what the artist sees.
From what I overhead, guests were impressed with the work. The friend that I went with said that because the tonal matching was so well done, it didn't matter that some of the skin tones were off. It didn't detract from the viewing experience. In fact, I didn't even notice that some of the skin tones were off until my second spin around the gallery.
I've included photos of all 10 paintings from the exhibit. The last painting is of me. I was honoured that Meghan asked me to be a part of the series. I've been painted on before, but no one has ever painted me. That painting is a departure from her usual tight oil painting style and it seemed to be a favourite with the guests when I was there. I enjoyed that people were asking if I was the girl in the painting and I enjoyed it even more when the painting was marked with a sold sticker. Just moments before, my friend said that I should get our friends to pool together and buy the painting for me. I said I liked the idea of a portrait of me hanging in someone's house and right after that, SOLD.
If you're local, you can view this unique work for yourself until October 27th.
Story and photos by Glodeane Brown