GAIL BACKUS
530 West 25th Street, New York, NY
Gail Backus is a mixed media painter based in Ontario Canada. In her work Backus recruits the natural world into her work, leaning into Arcadian subject matters available in her home region of Ontario. “My paintings are haikus to the beauty of nature.” Her other canvas and Yupo paintings also feature texturized and multi-media work. Artist collectives and galleries in Toronto sell her unique, particle-fine, interpretational paint-work as fabric printed tunics and kimonos.
Her latest body of work comprises gouache and ink paintings of flowers. Throughout the lockdown, Backus would spend her afternoons in her house garden seeking solace. Seated there, she painted the exquisite blooms that her husband arranged and planted. As she exhausted her subjects of flowers to paint, she transitioned to capturing their inner intricacies, concentrating on the finer details. The series mirrors the changing beauty of that natural sanctuary, encouraging viewers to immerse themselves in tranquil contemplation.
Backus participated in numerous exhibitions, locally and internationally, namely the Society of Canadian Artists’ international juried exhibition and the Japan Triennale. In 2017, she was a featured artist at the Visual Arts Mississauga. Backus is an established and involved figure in the Canadian national and Ontario regional art community belonging to eleven professional collectives, institutes, or societies, most notably the Ontario College of Teachers and the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Society of Canadian Artists, and the Arts and the Letters Club on Elm Street in Toronto, Canada. Trained in the Fine Arts (B.A., York University), she is also an educator (B.Ed., Art Specialist, York).
Montfort, Quebec inspired me to write Haiku poetry and paint because of the serene beauty, simplicity, and closeness to nature. Time seems to move slowly there, and allows you to contemplate the beauty of both nature and life. There is a calm stillness, a zen-like quality, that I would like to share with you.
Haiku poetry has no rhyme scheme. There are only three lines in each poem, containing seventeen lines in total. The pattern of Haiku poetry is as follows: line one contains five syllables, line two contains seven syllables, and line three contains five syllables. Although the poetry is brief, it invites the reader to visualize the scene and reflect on it.
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