Paintings

Blind Contour Homage Series – Canadian Female Artists

Blind Contour Homage: Heward by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Clark by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Bobak by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Rutherford by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Walker by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Pootoogook by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Oonark by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Mulcaster by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Shepherd by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Hamilton by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: McGillivray by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Pratt by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Macdonald-Brown by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Smith by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Carr by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Odjig by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Berman by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Lewis by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Kalvak by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Ashevak by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Savage by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Ferron by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Wieland by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Harris by Marlene Lowden
Blind Contour Homage: Ishulutaq by Marlene Lowden

Artist statement

This series emerged from Marlene Lowden’s captivation with female Canadian artists, many of whom are significantly under-recognized in the Canadian art canon. Their contributions deserve to be celebrated as singular expressions of dedication, endurance, and rebelliousness. With a desire to educate herself about the lives of female artists in Canada’s history, Lowden studied the lives and practices of skilled female artists from several regions, each with diverse cultural heritages. She was awed by the challenges they faced and the sacrifices they made to pursue art as their life’s purpose.

Lowden’s encounters with this work transformed her understanding of Canadian art history. Thus this series operates as an homage to those artists whose work was overlooked and turned aside, even as it helped to shape the Canadian aesthetic landscape we know today.

The series is titled “A Blind Contour Homage” because this style of drawing provides the base for each piece. It allows Lowden to study each of the historical works closely, giving her the freedom to recreate them with her own marks and gestures. Lowden then imbues her own stylized process upon each piece, balancing the original features of the painting with her own in an almost collaborative process.

“I hope my audience comes away invigorated by new knowledge about Canada’s female artists; I want the names of Odjig, Clark, Pootoogook, and Heward to become as familiar to them as Harris, Varley, Bush, and Town,” says Lowden.

Due to the types of conversations these pieces are designed to spark, Lowden hopes to inspire a new generation of youth interested in art history, compelling adults and children alike to investigate what still lies within the shadows of Canada’s artistic cultural fabric.

We are rightly conscious to address various groups’ and individuals’ under-representation in our present and future. We can only do this meaningfully by addressing the same in our history.

Marlene’s interpretations are incredible!

Visitor to The Hearth Gallery, Bowen Island

Exhibition Schedule:

Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre, Nov 1-22, 2019

Place des Arts, Coquitlam, Feb 14 – Mar 12 2020
1120 Brunette Avenue, Coquitlam

The Gibsons Public Art Gallery, Feb 15 – Mar 8 2020
431 Marine Drive

The Hearth – Bowen Island, April 15 – May 3, 2021

Summerland Art Centre, May 6 – June 19, 2021 (virtually only)

Island Mountain Gallery, Wells, B.C. Sept 15- Oct 31, 2021

Price list for the art work.

Learn about each artist included in the Homage series: