A new acrylic on canvas exhibition, “Smackdown!” by Prince Rupert artists Lynn Cociani and Suzo Hickey, may seem like a display of duelling brushes, but the two good friends want to show it’s all a matter of perspective.
A 7 p.m. evening meet and greet with the two artists at the Ruth Harvey Gallery on June 10 will engage art lovers in discussion about the technical use of the paintbrush and the artist’s individual processes.
While the 16 canvasses of landscape compositions are similar in many ways, they are vastly different, Cociani and Hickey agreed.
The artists stepped up to challenge themselves based on jointly chosen photographs taken on their many road trips together last summer. Both artists painted the same photo with their own inspiration and personal techniques. The result is an artist’s “smackdown” of the scenes from the North West.
Both artists have years of creating images, but each had challenges to face. Hickey doesn’t paint many water scenes and Cociani doesn’t like power lines. Both of these elements were incorporated when they stepped out of their comfort zones.
“It was a really good challenge. I think it stretched my muscles,” Cociani said.
The artists enjoyed being able to discuss the works they were creating and talk about ways to solve issues they were having. They said, more often than not, their problems would be the same.
“What I find interesting about seeing other artists’ interpretation of the same subject matter is how each brain changes things and how each person sees things completely differently. What comes out of my paintbrush … isn’t what comes out of Susan’s paintbrush. It’s interesting how different artists’ brains translate an image,” Cociani said.
“Suzo is really good at rendering, so her accuracy is excellent. She leaves a lot of the underpainting showing, so you get a lot of unusual colour coming through. It’s fun to look at. I’m a giant fan of Suzo’s work and I could look at it forever,” Lynn said.
“Lynn has this beautiful minimalist stuff. There is nothing that doesn’t need to be there. [Her paintings] are really vibrant and compositionally, they’re always right on,” Hickey said.
