Trinity Church gallery hosts Hyland Artists

September 9, 2015 · 0 Comments

The art gallery at Trinity United Church in Shelburne is hosting works by the Hyland Artists group for the month of September. The United Church on Owen Sound Street opened the new gallery last fall, when local artists and performers came together in a celebration of “Art touches Spirit, Spirit touches Art.” Most recently, the church presented a display of spiritual portraits by Sandy Harron. The congregation continues to reach out to the community with displays from various local artists, now featuring the Hyland Artists.
Hyland Artists was founded in 1977 by Grace Barr, Jean Cox and Jean Dinwoody and today the group continues creatively on and welcomes new members into the fold. The group’s mandate is to come together, not to teach, but to “support each other’s artistic successes” as well as “the failures.”
In a short written history of the Hyland Artists, Grace Barr recalls how the group was formed from the simple desire to capture beauty. She calls it the “little idea that grew:”
“In June 1977, I stood with my friend Jean Cox, looking at the birch trees and the evergreens that guard our small lake. I sighed and said, I wish I could draw all this. But you can said Jean, all you need is a pencil and paper, she laughed, and an eraser. This was the start of hours of fun and a life long love affair with a paint brush,” wrote Barr.
Thirty-eight years later, the little group has grown with Grace Barr and Jean Cox the only remaining founding members. Some of the early members included Ann Kendrew, Ester Mitchell and renowned Amaranth artist and illustrator Linda McLaren.
Artists currently on display at Trinity Church gallery include Brenda Cottingham who discovered a passion for drawing horses in school where she learned to love the “creativity of art and the structure of math;” Joycelyne Dewsbury from Amaranth, a self-taught artist, who works mainly in watercolour; Nedyene Doney raised in Shelburne, also self-taught, loves pencil drawing and oil; Audrey Jones, a member of Trinity Church is a self-taught artist who calls every piece “an experiment;” Trudy Gamble-Jacklin lives in Mulmur and works mainly in watercolour; Ann Kendrew, who lives in Mono, works in acrylics and does decorative painting; Linda O’Connor lives on a beef farm in Amaranth and is a self-taught artist who enjoys working in watercolour; Rita Robertson born in Belgium, lives in Melancthon and works in pastel and oils; Marj Tunney born in Alberta and now lives in Shelburne, paints acrylic and oil landscapes; as well as Joan Vrooman, who enjoys watercolour, folk art and paper tole painting.
The Hyland Artists meet 9:30–11 a.m. on Fridays in the New Horizons Room in the Mel Lloyd Centre and welcome new members who like to sketch or paint to join them.
Their art work is on display now at Trinity United Church, 200 Owen Sound Street, and is available for viewing Tuesday to Friday mornings from 9 a.m. until noon.

By Marni Walsh