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ALICE BURTON
Lives and works in Toronto, Canada
w w w.alicebur ton.com
I began a voyage to abstraction after a trip to China in 1998, followed by travels The result of this process is DOWNRIVER. The works depict all four seasons
in India and Japan in subsequent years, totally altered the way I perceived and were done over the year in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario. The
my environment. Rather than describing a subject, my works progressively works are inspired by the landscape, and the majesty and never-ending
focused on colour, line, texture, and the dynamics created through their movement of the great St. Lawrence river. (Alice Burton)
juxtaposition. The works formed a condensed visual diary of my travels.
Inspired by my impressions of Japan – both the importance the Japanese place “What is most interesting about Burton’s series Downriver, is that, in
on their own seasons and the spare yet eloquent simplicity of much of their an act of self-conscious introspection, she turned the gaze of the Other
art and design - I began a new series of works that reduced the elements onto herself. As only a Canadian – fluent in the language of cross-cultural
of the Canadian seasons to their bare essentials.I wanted to paint not only encounter--could, Burton looks at herself and her country from the outside.
what the seasons looked like but how they felt, to succeed in “the momentary What she reveals is a country whose visual vocabulary is as diverse as
capturing of an essence or mood.” In so doing, I completed the circle of my its seasons: her painterly style borrows from East Asian calligraphy and
artistic journey: I found that I had to have some recognizable features of the the stenciled forms of Indian textiles, conveying a Canada rich in cultural
Canadian landscape in my works. references and confident in its own identity.”
Ming Tiampo, Phd
CITY OF LIGHT I, 2001 MIXED MEDIA AND GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS 48X48 IN. /122X122 CM
JOURNEYS II, 2003 ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 48X48 IN. /122X122 CM.
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CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS