Village Squire, 1976-01, Page 18Ron's drawings are an intricate working of pencil, painstakingly put together.
While both enjoy country life, it can have
its problems for artists. Slow mail delivery,
for instance, recently meant they missed a,
chance to take part in two important
exhibitions because the notices didn't arrive
until too late. Getting materials can also be a
challenge but one Bev is looking forward to.
Artists, she says, tend to work with what they
have at hand and so lack of ready access• to
the usual materials may force them into
experimentation with things around them.
Bev is already familiar with experimenta-
tion. Upset by the high cost of framing works
of art, she experimented with silk screened
prints on pexi-glass that could be hung in
front of a light source. The prints were built
up in layers of glass, each one printed with a
different portion of the picture. The result
was a three-dimensional effect. The result
was also expensive. The cost of pexi-glass
skyrocketed and shot down the plan to
produce works several feet square. Still
remaining, however, are small works four
inches by four inches with tiny 'scenes in
dream-like atmosphere.
Experimentation comes naturally to Bev.
Her training actually isn't in art, but in
medical research. She came from a family,
she recalls, where everyone was expected to
take a course in a field that would provide a
good living. So she took a lab technology
course and only later began to drift more
toward art. She took night courses and other
short -courses but actually has no formal art
training. She began to take art seriously in
1970 when she worked late at night on art and
kept up with the lab job during the daytime.
About 1972 she reduced her lab work to
part-time and spending the rest of the time on
art. She got lucky, she recalls, and landed a
job at Centennial College in Scarboro
teaching art. She had taken courses there and
happened to be there when they needed a
teacher and was recommended for the job by
a former teacher.
"You have to learn a lot more when you
teach a subject," she says of that teaching
experience. Always knowing that students
LADIES & GIRLS
SWEATERS, BLOUSES,
DRESSES & CARCOATS
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JANUARY 1976, 17