Openings

Sunbury Shores exhibition opening receptions are free to attend. There will be hors d'oeurves and a cash bar available.  Ella Morton: The Great Kind Mystery Canadian filmmaker Ella Morton aims to uncover how photographs and films can show more than a straightforward depiction of reality, and how the alchemy of analogue techniques can be reinvented in the digital age to tell deeper stories within images. Using techniques such as film soaking, bleaching, hand-colouring and mordançage, she captures the transcendent, mysterious, and fragile qualities of landscapes in and around Newfoundland. A documentary film which accompanies the exhibition, features Inuk and Mi’kmaw artist Amy Hull telling stories about her home in Daniel’s Harbour, Newfoundland. David Norris: The Adventures of Rivet Boy In this animated musical film, Saint Andrews animator and musician David Norris constructs scenes using photographs rather than traditional drawings, to make each moment visually compelling and captivating. The storyline, intentionally simple and whimsical, is crafted to resonate with both adults and children. The music and naïveté of the narrative evoke a sense of nostalgia for adults while maintaining an accessible and enchanting quality for younger viewers.

Opening Reception, Friday, April 5, 5 - 7 pm Lisa Marie Boissoneau: Borrowed Roots This series of paintings draws upon family research, familial archives, and personal memory to create large format portraits that explore the many aspects of identity. The artist was born in Moncton to a single mother and adopted by a Catholic couple in Quebec.  The artist appropriates images, stories, links and sometimes even ancestors who become an important source of inspiration in her work. They connect her childhood to the present.   Rotchild Choisy: MASQU-ET-VISAGES : Comment naviguer dans ses relations  Through his artistic practice, Moncton-based artist Rotchild Choisy explores his quest for identity and the social, economic, and political relationships people have with their environment. From his point of view, it's impossible to understand and know another person without knowing oneself. In his work, he often uses expressive drawing; he also reinterprets Haitian and African symbolic figures to make a correlation between masks, emotions and the environment.

CLASS of 2024: Art by Charlotte County Students The annual group exhibition of work by students who participate in Sunbury Shores programs that take place in elementary and high schools and at the Centre, including for example, Afterschool Art and C.L.A.S.S.

Deanna Musgrave: Water Witness The theme of celebrating and exploring water and weather has dominated the Saint John-based artist’s work for nearly 20 years. This new body of work uses a channelled language to give a voice to water, the sea, and the sky. When giving a voice to water, the artist highlights that water is a consciousness, thus bringing into question how we treat it and environmental concerns around it. This language is meant to be transpersonal so that it will connect with anyone and engage them with a unique message for each viewer. Mimi Lucas: The weather was important. In this series of artworks, the Saint John artist’s ultimate painting goals are to compose happy, yet serious and ambiguous work. This exhibition consists of small- and large-scale paintings that consider how our environment significantly controls our lives. With the current prevailing tendency toward extreme weather, our world has experienced diverse displays of excess rain and flooding, wildfires, hurricanes, and rising temperatures. Lucas’ paintings evoke rather than describe. They are presented in an abstracted landscape that is more a personal narrative than a perceived truth.

Flora: Ralph Simpson, Caoife Garvey, Clare Bridge, Heather McCaig, David Eeles, Judy Blake and Alexa Jaffurs Seven award-winning artists from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia working in diverse disciplines create artistic connections in their work by addressing one theme - that of nature and plants in wood, iron, plant fibre, clay, glass, textiles, and fine metals.  Flora illustrates the social and artistic connections between the artists, their inspiration, and their collective reverence of the natural world.   The View from Here Felicia Norris Bartlett: Felicia Norris Bartlett paints in oil with most of her work representing open spaces and idyllic landscapes. Her signature style mixes detailed clouds and skies with a touch of whimsy. The rugged cliffs of Fundy, picturesque lighthouses dotting the coastline, and the ever-changing moods of Passamaquoddy Bay and the Atlantic Ocean are all presented in delicate and serene paintings. Theresa MacKnight: In this new work, Theresa MacKnight has created drawings and paintings of the interior of Sunbury Shores in a direct response to the Centre from the point of view of an artist, and longtime user of the studio areas. Theresa approaches her work in acrylic from many perspectives, always with consideration, thoughtfulness, and an openness to […]