Jennifer Stead works on her drawing which is being displayed as a live work in progress at the City Hall Art Gallery.
For the next few weeks, plants will be growing at city hall. No need for soil, though. Just a 38-metre strip of blank paper and some charcoal.
Ottawa artist Jennifer Stead, for her new exhibition A Long, Drawn Out Story, will turn the City Hall Art Gallery into a studio to create a landscape in charcoal. Visitors will be able to see her at work, and interact with her during the process.
“That’s a very interesting and important part of the show,” says Meaghan Haughian, exhibitions assistant for the City of Ottawa.
“Usually, artists hang their work up and then leave, right?”
Stead has been painting landscapes for about 20 years, but this is her largest work. She says having such a big surface to cover is a little intimidating.
“I don’t really know what I’m going to do, it’s a bit of an improvisation," she says."My initial idea was to cover the walls with a landscape or a garden, or garden idea.”
The different elements of the drawing, wild and domestic plants, humans and animals, will convey a narrative.
“It goes from left to right, sort of like a book. You start and you make your way through to the other end," she says.
Walking to see the drawing is part of the experience, says the artist. She is interested in the way we observe while moving.
“What I’m trying to do is to create or re-create . . . how we experience nature,” says Stead.
The drawing will include landscapes inspired by Gatineau Park, Banff, Alta., where she lived for many years, and by the Laurentians of her childhood summers.
Medieval walled gardens and china plates given to her by her grandparents are also some of Stead’s inspirations.
She says she is always looking for plants and trees for ideas, even in people’s gardens.
“If they have the right tree, that’s all it takes,” Stead says.
Among the plants and trees, some human figures might appear in her work. The artist mentioned a gardener, and maybe even her 10-year-old niece, Caitlin Stead, who is posing for her for the first time.
“(When she asked me) I was like ‘Wow . . . you want me to be in the picture?’” says the Hilson Avenue Public School student.
“I’m excited, it’s really cool.”
With her exhibition, Stead is not only inviting visitors into her studio, but she is also allowing them to participate.
A smaller roll of paper at the gallery entrance gives visitors an opportunity to try charcoal drawing.
The artist will be working on her landscape Wednesdays to Sundays, from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., until late April.
The final work will be displayed until May 2.