The Callander Bay Heritage Museum & Alex Dufresne Gallery is pleased to announce its new art exhibition “Scattered”, featuring the works of North Bay artist Kimberly a. Rainville. There will be an opening reception on Saturday June 14th from 2:00 – 4:00pm and the artist will be present. There will be light refreshments and free museum admission.
“In order to be, I must Create.”
With the exception of hiding out in the art room throughout most of high school, Rainville is mostly self-taught. She has worked with various mediums such as papier mâché, rug hooking, quilting, sewing, weaving, and acrylics all with predominantly recycled materials.
“Art is the Voice of the Heart.”
Many artists do not confine themselves to one art style or medium and Rainville is a great example of this. This freedom allows artists to capture, in their art, all the beauty (or ugly) that is seen through the artist’s eye. Artists do see the world differently (although everyone has this ability, artists have refined it – making their style). Things are seen in colours, textures and shapes, rather than objects. A walk in nature can inspire a quilt pattern or a character made out of papier mâché or a really cool painting. Rainville feels blessed to be able to see the world through an artist’s eye. She felt it would be very interesting to gather all of her “scattered” creations to see if others could find the common thread(s) that run through each medium.. is there one?
“Life is a series of thousands of miracles, I try to notice them all.”
The “noticing” helps to ground and calm and help with breathing. She finds that creating de-stresses herself and helps her get out of her head and into the flow. It’s a type of calming and grounding meditation. The grounding helps her mind to go off into dreamland and create something else… “squirrel”.
“My mantra is recycle, simplify, and exaggerate.”
Recycle: Rainville loves to work with recycled materials like old tents, cutter quilts and blankets, scraps of wood and bits of junk. Everything deserves a second chance to be beautiful.
Simplify: She loves to remove all the noise from what she sees, she loves to draw her flowers and birds with her non-dominant hand in order to keep them quirky and whimsical.
Exaggerate: Her favourite – a flower can be as big as a tree, it’s fun, whimsical and quirky. “The world does not make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do.” (Picasso)
Under the primer of her paintings, Rainville loves to write, in pencil, a quote or message to inspire… it can’t be seen in the finished products, but its energy is there.
She creates “Art to make your heart smile” and hopes that the bright colours and simplicity of her drawings wake up your inner child and encourage you to believe in magic.
Rainville was born and raised in North Bay with her 3 boys. She attended Chippewa and Canadore many years ago. She was a nurse for years before and after owning a business in downtown North Bay and she is currently a full-time artist and grandmother of 7 beautiful grandchildren.
“My grandmother used to tell me often to ‘get my ducks in a row’. I believe, at this point in my life, that I have lost all my ducks and are dealing strictly with squirrels”.
Join us on Saturday June 14th to celebrate the opening of “Scattered” by Kimberly a. Rainville. The show will remain on display until Saturday July 12th. The operating hours for the Museum and Art Gallery are Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 – 5:00pm. We are located at 107 Lansdowne St. E. in Callander in the same building as the Callander Bay Heritage Museum. Please find us on Facebook for more information (@callandermuseum), phone us at 705-752-2282 or email us at museum@callander.ca. We hope to see you there!
 - Resized.png)
