Darlene Cole is a phenomenal Canadian artist whose work can now be seen at Bau-Xi Gallery in Toronto. She is already an established artist and I am pleased to display her work and interview on my blog. As Ms. Cole says it best herself, she paints from the heart and it shows throughout her work. When you take a closer look you can see that her artwork evokes images of childhood, relationships, and nature all at once. She instills her work with an innocence that is mystical and pure. Memory is also at the center of her work and Ms. Cole always reminds us that time has an elusive quality.
Her paintings capture the essence of the natural world together with animal and human aspects. Whether she's painting a leopard, a deer or a swan she renders them in dreamlike setting with a playful water colour effect. Her painterly style transitions to her other works as she aims to capture an ethereal balance between what we see and what we want to remember. Her images of childhood makes us wonder of a time long gone and her vivid portrayals of florals show us that beauty is forever entwined with a quiet sensualness.
Ms. Cole doesn't shy away from using colour and light to give us a therapeutic impact. Her paintings are easy on the eyes and their sometimes blurry rendering gives us something to relive and wonder. She paints the Canadian landscape with ingenuity and we see references to Canadiana throughout. She pays homage to her home and we honour her work and support her as the great Canadian artist who she is.
Female artists are becoming better recognized and she no exception. It will come as no surprise that her paintings sell remarkably well and she has much to look forward to. Her current exhibition entitled Paradise is currently on display until December 23rd at Bau-Xi Gallery in Toronto. I have included a few artworks here from Artsy to show both the breadth of her work as well as her international reach. Please enjoy these together with the interview.
Paradise (resilience) 2024
1. Tell us about your upbringing and education in Canada?
I went to a very small elementary school in a farming town, then for high school we were bussed to a more populated area. I went to Queen’s University for my Bachelor of Fine Art and from there I was one of the first four students to complete a Masters of Fine Art at the University of Waterloo.
Reverie, (HM Queen Elizabeth II, September 19, 2022) 2022
2. How did your environment impact your work?
My parents had a passion for restoring historic homes. They sold a cottage and a new build house to purchase and restore a Victorian home in Brooklin, Ontario where I have the most childhood memories with my sister and brother. There’s nothing like the way thought-out architecture makes me feel. It’s a language, just like painting is. Living in Kingston, I also lived in historic houses and loved how the downtown wrapped around Lake Ontario. Everything was close by so I could walk and I realized how much one takes in visually during a walk…this really influenced the immersive aspect of my work with the figure enveloped in nature.
Prelude (rowboat)
3. You paint dream-like scenes in your art tell us how they come about?
I’m influenced by music and the motion of the two lakes that I live between. I have two studios, one is just a few steps from the lake. The drive between the two studios is mostly farmland with dreamy skies and meandering pathways. The lake is cinematic to me…I can sit or canoe and ideas continuously roll for paintings.
Paradise (polka dot chiffon under the magnolias), 2024
4. How does colour figure in your art?
I paint under natural light only. The weather, the music I’m listening to and what’s going on in my life and the world all contribute to my colour palette.
Paradise (peonies of the sea)
5. Please tell us which artists have influenced your work the most?
John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Degas, Tony Scherman, Betty Goodwin, Tracey Emin, Juan Munoz
Paradise (moving lake under the birch), 2024
6. How has your style of painting evolved over the years?
I don’t believe in style when it comes to painting. Overtime I feel that human experience and the physical presence of touch through the brushstrokes evolves and my hope is that the drawing element of my work shows through as a foundation.
Lake (wild), 2019
7. What do you wish for your audience to know about your work?
It comes from the heart. Ultimately, it’s the honesty and conversations that I hope to spark with my work — between the paintings themselves and with the viewer through the mystery of the figure and the layers of nature.
Prelude (love-struck), 2023
8. What is your work process like, tell us your day to day?
I paint in spurts of time. I used to work for 8 hours straight and I found that in the last hour I would paint over the last 7 hours. It took me years to figure out that painting for me is very intense emotional blocks of time with spaces in between. I always want to try new things, so I don’t really see it as the same process every time I’m painting.
Prelude (Algonquin mist), 2024
9. What inspires you the most as an artist?
Wow…so many thoughts…the human body, relationships, gardens that have a wildness about them, wild animals, original recordings of music, live music, colour combinations that I would never have thought of, patterns and textures in textiles, the grain in old oak furniture, heirloom peonies, how the light changes in our four seasons.
Reverie (tracing your footsteps), 2024
10. What’s next for you as an artist?
I would like to do a large installation sculpture.
Prelude (wild swan)
11.Who are some of your favourite film directors?
Luca Guadagnino…I’m drawn in by the sensualness of his films.
Reverie (gold polka dot taffeta), 2022
12. What do you like to do on your day off?
Visit museums, forest walks, visit the lake, go for a chai latte.
Paradise (cherry blossoms). 2024
13. How has the Canadian art scene changed over the years?
The biggest and most wonderful change is that there are more women artists being recognized and there’s more diversity of Art in Canada.
Prelude (teen cats), 2024
All Images Courtesy of Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto and Galerie de Bellefeuille.
