Peter Grant review

Review of selected pieces from the inaugural exhibit, by Peter Grant, media personality, CJOB Winnipeg broadcaster (retired), television host of Market to Kitchen (Shaw TV) and Taste of Manitoba (Global TV), columnist, Prime Times Newspaper, Manitoba Gardener, and The Cottager magazines, author of Pot Luck with Peter Grant:

Democracy?

While this painting was done in 2002, it was very prophetic on the part of the artist, given the events of this fall in Ukraine.

She is able to portray the steely determination on the faces of the crowd as they demand freedom. We see both the life-worn leather-lined faces of elders and the exuberant brashness of youth. But more important, she captures the strength, pride, and inner emotions of the masses as they rise as one to overthrow the oppression of Communism. There is a better way of life and it is within their grasp. We can feel and see their hope.

Famine

In this day and age, and in this century, it is hard to fathom how one man, Joseph Stalin, could issue an edict that would deliberately send over nine million Ukrainian men, women, and children to their deaths by starvation. But it happened only 70 years ago. Most of us were ignorant that it was happening while it happened, and remain ignorant of this travesty to this very day. Those who were aware did nothing to stop it.

The painting by Orysia Sinitowich-Gorski draws us into the very lives of the people who struggle to barely exist one day at a time. Her use of darker colours accents the drabness and futility of their existence. We feel as well as see the dreary glazed-over hopeless look in the eyes, the defeated demeanour of the face and most horribly, the starved, emaciated bodies of poor, helpless children who have no hope at the moment and no future beyond today.

The artist captures and exposes man's baser inhumanity. We hope and pray that we shall never again turn our eyes to such a blot on mankind's supposed climb up the ladder of civilized intelligence.

Leo's Windows

Although this is a painting from a photograph, it was not just an exercise in portraiture. There is an obvious affection for the subject on the part of the artist. There is strength and intelligence in Leo Mol's face, and a twinkle in his eye. While this may be easy to see in a photograph, it is not easy to capture in a painting-unless the artist paints with emotion, feeling, and love. This is very much evident in Leo's Windows.

Orysia Sinitowich-Gorski portrays Leo Mol as he really is - a quiet, humble, supremely talented world-acclaimed artist whose work speaks for itself. The muted colours of the stained glass in the background captures the essence and creative purity of his work. This is a painting that replicates and preserves exactly the image that we all have of Leo Mol, the artist.