Land and Landscape
18 recent encaustic and mixed media works
“You’ve got to go sniff, smell the earth, see it, look at it. That’s the sort of geography that I think is still important.”
—Michael Palin
Running Before the Wind
2015
Encaustic, summer camp canoeing curriculum circa 1979, photo transfer, graphite, charcoal, oil stick and pastel.
62×48”
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
From Explicit to Implicit and Back
2015
Encaustic, summer camp canoeing curriculum circa 1979, photo transfer, graphite, charcoal, oil stick and pastel.
24×30”
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
Gratitude Was the Thing She Felt Most That Summer
2015
Encaustic, photo transfer, graphite, and oil stick.
24 x 24”
Private Collection
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
Silent Return
2015
Encaustic, photo transfer and scans, excerpts from The Canoe and You, RH Perry, 1948, summer camp canoeing curriculum circa 1979, graphite, charcoal, oil stick and pastel.
66×48”
Private Collection
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
Trail’s Edge
2015
Encaustic on Canvas on Panel
13 5/8 x 28 3×8”
Available at the Art Gallery of Peterborough
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
Winter Nocturne II
2015
Encaustic on Panel
10×8”
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
Winter Nocturne III
2015
Encaustic on Panel
10×8”
Available at the Art Gallery of Peterborough
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
Winter Sketch I
2015
Encaustic on Panel
7×7”
Private Collection
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
Winter Sketch IV
2015
Encaustic on Panel
7×7”
Available at the Art Gallery of Peterborough
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
Winter Sketch V
2015
Encaustic on Panel
7×7”
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
Winter Sketch VI
2015
Encaustic on Panel
7×7”
Photo Credit: Lesli Michaelis Onusko
A Necessary Experience
2014
Encaustic, oil stick and pastel on canvas on panel.
Distressed metal shelf and brackets with ski pole basket.
20″ x 20″
Private Collection
No Experience Necessary
2014
Encaustic, excerpts from books in Dad’s library, watercolour paper, oil stick, pastel, tacks on canvas on panel.
Distressed metal shelf and brackets with leather safety strap.
20″ x 20″
Private Collection
Another Kind of Literacy
2014
Encaustic on canvas under-painting on repurposed kitchen cupboards–2010, charcoal and graphite drawings–circa 1990, bicycles made from Canadian pennies and copper wire–2013, balsa wood paddles–2013, US army tent canvas, galvanized tin, metal, nails, tacks, rare earth magnets, wood veneer from a crate, birch bark, lichen, Spanish moss, pine needles, twigs.
46½” x 24½”
Grace Notes (for Dad)
2014
Encaustic, excerpts from a book in Dad’s library
(Expert Skiing, D. Bradley, R. Miller and A. Merrill, 1960),
oil stick, pastel, tacks on birch panel.
48″x 48″
Private Collection
“How much joy in learning to handle the technical details of running with smoothness. And how many lifelong friendships tempered in the fires of competition. Only the good runner who has gotten beyond fighting himself on the long course can say…
There are no true shortcuts. As the swimmer through swimming several hundred miles of a crawl stroke, smooths out his motions, co-ordinates his breathing and timing, so the cross-country runner must put the miles behind him before he knows what technique is. Books, charts, photographs training tables can make that work intelligent, but that distance—hundreds of miles running on skis— must also be there.”
—Expert Skiing, 1960
Meaning and Value
2014
Encaustic, Gran-dad’s security records and papers (The Telegram, 1959, The Globe and Mail, 1971, Rise and Fall Charts, Annual Reports), book-jacket from Aunt Pearl’s investment book, photographs, oil stick, pastel, window mount and trim, nails, tacks, hydrangea petals, Nepalese weaving boat-shuttle made from bone, canvas and silk from Nana and Gramps’ antique screen on repurposed kitchen cupboards, plank from the roof of Jane and Pete’s first house.
58 ½” x 47½”
Paddles Have Names
2014
Encaustic, excerpt from The Canoe and You, RH Perry, 1948,
oil stick, pastel, canvas on repurposed kitchen cupboard.
57½” x 18¼”
Private Collection
True Line
2014
Encaustic on canvas on panel.
20″ x 20″
Private Collection