Liquid Mirrors July 22, 2010

Muskoka artist Morgan Earl’s photo-based impressionist images are vibrant evidence of his discovery of water.

Port Sydney, Ontario artist Morgan Earl (who was recently featured in the G8/G20 Canada exhibit) debuts a new series of large format images, which exhibit his fascination with the enigmatic qualities of water. His solo showcase “Liquid Mirrors” opens with a reception on Thursday, July 22 (6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.) and runs to August 14, 2010 at Leonardo Galleries in Yorkville.

States Earl, “My goal here is to achieve abstraction and realism within a single image. Water is our lifeblood. It is so unique, and so profound, its miraculous properties are still waiting to be discovered.”

Raised on rivers and sailed on four oceans, Morgan Earl divides his time between Port Sydney, Ontario (on the Muskoka River, between Bracebridge and Huntsville) and France’s Cote d’Azur, and Earl’s subject locations range widely wherever he finds water – from Saint-Tropez to Bahamas, from Cannes to Tuscany or his favourite rivers of Muskoka.

Seeing each work as a short story and armed with a 200-mm Nikon lens, Earl applies an originally conceived digital process and Chromira printing technique to bring forward powerful and sumptuous colours. The finished prints, which range up to 48 inches square, are then backed onto an aluminum substrate and a high gloss laminate is applied for sheen and permanency.

Morgan Earl’s style is informed by 19th century artistic risk takers van Gogh and Cezanne and the Canadian Group of Seven led by Tom Thomson. These artists were unafraid to cross artistic boundaries to realize their new visions of our natural world. With this same spirit, Morgan paints with his camera.

He brings a rich career in the visual, literary and digital arts together and now, in his fourth year as a full-time artist, Morgan has devoted his efforts to solo exhibitions and has shown in galleries all over Ontario and in France. He has also published three photography books (Liquid Mirrors: An Intimate View of Muskoka Rivers, Liquid Mirrors: Cote Sud d’Europe and Liquid Mirrors: An abstract approach to water imagery).

Quote:
“Is it art or photography? Who cares! Earl’s images are on canvas because they deserve to be; he’s given us a fresh original interpretation of our raw Canadian rivers that catches and celebrates their glory.” – Pat Feheley, Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto.

For more exhibit information visit; www.leonardogalleries.com.

As a member of the Yorkville Art Galleries Collective, Leonardo Galleries participates in the free monthly Yorkville Art Gallery Walk, which is held the first Thursday of each month and coincides with exhibition openings.

Leonardo Galleries, Toronto is devoted to the promotion of contemporary art. The gallery represents local and international artists from established and emerging categories and has a significant collection of works of art in painting, print-media, sculpture and photography. Leonardo Galleries also specializes in conservation framing and expert art restoration.

Official Website: http://www.leonardogalleries.com