B4 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday A ugust 13, 2003 Beauty of the West, East Coasts leaves impression on Oakville artist Home and Away offers viewer a glimpse of remarkable landscapes By Craig Macbride S P E C IA L T O IH E O A K V ILLE BEAVEK aren Walker claimed half her psyche is West Coast, meaning that she has a different attitude toward landscape. She did spend much of her adult life in the West, living in the British Colombia interior, and later in Vancouver. Always being aware that you are in between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean does seem to leave an impression on peo ple. especially people who weren't bom there. The landscape definitely left an impression on Walker, who was bom in St. Catharines and has been painting for 25 years. It is that impression which is evi dent in her upcoming show at Anastasia Gallery in Oakville. Titled Home and Away, the show documents Walker's many trips in Canada, as well as to France and South Africa, and around southern Ontario. The title o f the show is also a play on words. Many of her paintings are o f places in Newfoundland, where, if you are a visitor, you're `'from away." K The Newfoundland paintings are some o f her best of the 35 in the show. Walker has a series of three paintings o f icebergs that are beautiful, all of them using several shades of blue for the water, the ice and the looming, worrying sky. She has also included two large, majestic paintings of Gros M om e National Park, where enormous cliffs rise to flank wide rivers. The power of the landscapes in both Eastern and Western Canada to define the people who live there is fascinat ing, Walker said, and it is evident in her striking paintings. The work included in the show from other countries is also remarkable, from the rock formations in the Arizona desert to the pink cliffs and crashing waves o f South Africa. The scenery is magnificent and offers a lot more than a postcard ever could, as Walker lends her emo tions to the landscapes. The paintings aren't as precise as postcards, but Walker imposes so heavily the human ability to experience on her paintings that they fill the viewer with an expe rience of their own. There are also paintings of southern Ontario in her show. and W alker doesn't want to leave the impression that great painting can't be done in the area. She has painted Rattray Marsh and Ball's Falls, as well as other scenic locations. W alker is part o f the Charlevoix group, which con sists of painters who travel once each year to Charlevoix, Quebec on the coast o f the St. Lawrence River, to paint and to critique one another's work. They also work together around here and once in France. "We go out in the winter as well, w e're not fair-weather painters," W alker said. "We paint alone, but there's a cama raderie. It's a special group, we all get along. We have an appre ciation of working and being quiet for an hour or two to work: we all understand that." On top of being a painter. Walker is semi-retired teacher, and is now teaching painting. "It's always great fun to teach someone something they really want to learn." Karen Walker's Home and Away will be on display at Anastasia Gallery, 6 Lakeshore Rd. W. until Oct. 1. There will be an opening reception on tomor row (Thursday) at 7 p.m. Peter C. McCusker · Oakville Beaver K aren W alker holds one of h er paintings featured in H om e and Away. I t's o f G ros M orne P ark in N ewfoundland. SOUTHERN ONTARIO CHAMBER MUSIC INSTITUTE presents Special coaches join chamber music institute Penderecki String Q uartet on August 14 t T Borealis String Q uartet on August 21 8:00 p . m. Willis Hall, Appleby College Student Showcase on August 23 2:00 p. m. Calvary Baptist Church Tickets $35, $30 and $20 at the door. www.socmi.on.ca 905-842-5865 he Southern Ontario Chamber Music Institute (SOCMI) welcomes two international-award-winning. special coaches"to the first week of its summer chamber music instruction program -- composer/pianist Alice Ping-Yee Ho and pianist/teacher Gloria Saarinen. T hey ' will join the eight-person faculty already on campus at Appleby College for SOCMI's 15th anniversary season. The Penderecki String Quartet will perform Ho's Siring Quartet #2 , composed for the quar tet and underwritten by the Laidlaw Foundation, during the first o f three SOCMI public concerts, Aug. 14 at 8 p.m. in Willis Hall at the college. Ho is a Hong Kong-born freelance compos er/pianist dedicated to the creation of "new music". She will lead master classes and dis cuss her work with SOCMI's 35 students assembled for this year's program. Saarinen, internationally known as one of Canada's foremost piano performer-teachers, will share her pianistic skills while coaching Montreal's Grovehill piano trio. SOCMI's other upcoming concerts feature the Borealis String Quartet on Aug. 21 at 8 p.m., also in Willis Hall, and a Student Showcase, Aug. 23 at 2 p.m. in Calvary Baptist Church. The Showcase's audience will experience the student's passion, intensity and excitement generated by having been introduced to one another, formed into ensembles, handed scores and coached to performance levels in just 14 days. Tickets for all concerts are available at L'Atelier Grigorian, through the SOCMI office at 905-842-5865 and at the door. Oakville-based SOCMI is an independent, volunteer-run. non-profit, educational organi zation. The Ontario Trillium Foundation, private individuals, business community leaders and local granting agencies fund the Institute. Accepting a limited number o f jury-selected students each August, the Institute provides young string players with the most intensive chamber music quartet education experience available. Since its founding in Hamilton. Ontario, by cellist/educator Ann Vallentyne, the institute has coached and mentored more than 450 young string musicians, many of whom have chosen careers as professional musicians. SOCMI alumni can be found performing and teaching across North America and Europe. These deals are practically rolling themselves out the door... and pick one up now! HAND WOVEN W O O L & SILK CHINESE RUGS up to WE ALL WANT OUR KIDS TO SUCCEED. WE LIVE WHERE YOU LIVE. V2 PRICE PERSIAN RUGS HAND WOVEN IN IRAN up to As education costs rise, it is im portant to plan for your child's post-secondary education. A Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) allows you to help your aspiring student pay for expenses like tuition and housing. 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