Juliana McDonald’s oil painting, Field of Shadow, is on display on the feature wall adjacent to Galerie Annexe, Ottawa Art Gallery. This group exhibition runs from January 24 to March 1, 2020. McDonald’s painting can be purchased or rented through the gallery.

McDonald’s field paintings address her deep concern for the loss of Monarch butterfly habitats, as she has watched Monarch numbers diminish alarmingly in the past decade (by 90%). Until recently, McDonald visited these fields repeatedly, researching and recording details, new relationships, and surprises. But sadly, the fields have been destroyed for a development project. The wide expanses, which she used to explore, are now only remembered through her paintings. She invites others to enter the fields of memory to make their own personal discoveries and perhaps to feel the loss.
To capture the shifting personalities of these fields of milkweed that support Monarch breeding, she uses a palette knife to apply the paint. Layer upon layer of oil paint creates active, lively surfaces that suggest shifting light and complex detail.

Ottawa Art Gallery | Galerie d’art d’Ottawa
50 Mackenzie King Bridge, Ottawa, ON, K1N 0C5 | T: 613.233.8699 +234
oaggao.ca

Photo credit, Gavin McLintock