Sondy Mackay

(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

Biography

From high school to the Ontario College of Art in Toronto (for one year), my life was substantially dedicated to art.  But life took me on a different path. I  worked as an investment advisor in the financial industry , Although I have followed the works of many Canadian artists and purchased works of art over the years,  it wasn’t until I was in my mid 60’s that I decided to return to painting

Statement

I have always loved art and nature.   This series of landscapes is a memory of when I was living in British Columbia.  It was amazing to travel down a road cut into the side of a steep valley allowing me to see the winding roads running ahead perched high on the steep banks above the river below or to pass through a valley with the fields so bright and the mountains behind so dark.  The colours of dusk in Vancouver were even stronger as the continuous dark shapes of the city buildings created a strong contrast to the sky and water of the harbour.

However, the landscape of nature is ever-changing. The light caused by the times of the day or the weather can create very different moods and colours both in the sky and on the landscape.

I am captivated by seeing how water changes the structure of the ground — bringing very distinct landscapes from one part of the country to another. Water can change the landscape in some instances within a day but mostly over a period of years.

I work in acrylic and often work on a painting intensely for some time, then sit back and study the painting for even a couple of days assessing what I like and what I am not happy with before going back and continuing to work on my piece.

I feel deep satisfaction in painting a landscape that I love — it is capturing the memory and allows me to have it with me. One can do that in a photograph but by actually painting it — one really is allowed to have a much deeper connection to the importance of every aspect of the scene.