{"id":5881,"date":"2014-07-25T00:15:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T07:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=5881"},"modified":"2014-07-23T16:05:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T23:05:39","slug":"peretz-centre-opens-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/07\/25\/peretz-centre-opens-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Peretz Centre opens gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left to right: Simon Bonettemaker, Hinda Avery, Claire Cohen and Colin Nicol-Smith. (photo by Olga Livshin)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided we\u2019ll be the Peretz Painters,\u201d said Colin Nicol-Smith, one of the collaborators of the inaugural art show that opened on July 16 at the new art gallery in the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture. The other \u201cPeretz Painters\u201d include Claire Cohen, Hinda Avery and Simon Bonettemaker.<\/p>\n

Nicol-Smith knows both Avery and Cohen through the Peretz Centre, and Bonettemaker was his long-term business partner in their engineering consulting firm. In an interview with the Independent, Nicol-Smith said that the idea for the show and the gallery first came up after a conversation with Avery.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said that the lounge would be an ideal place for an art gallery. I agreed and put it in front of the board \u2013 I\u2019m a member. The board agreed, too. So, I contacted the others, and we decided we would be the first to exhibit here.\u201d The plan is for an annual summer show at the gallery. \u201cAll other months of the year the lounge is too busy,\u201d Nicol-Smith explained.<\/p>\n

The stories of the four Peretz Painters are as different as their art.<\/p>\n

Cohen is a professional artist. She has a bachelor\u2019s degree in fine art and a master\u2019s in art therapy. Her paintings feature the theme of music. The instruments in the paintings blend and dance with other forms, producing multiple and complex associations. Architecture and flowers, people and history mesh with musical nuances \u2013 a string, an elegant cello neck, a snippet of notes \u2013 as lines and shapes flow into each other. The paintings vibrate with color. They are festive, celebrating the artist\u2019s love of classical music. \u201cClassical music is part of my life. I always listen to it when I paint,\u201d said Cohen.<\/p>\n

Art makes her whole and happy, and that\u2019s why she went into art therapy. \u201cI wanted to give more meaning to my art, help others with it,\u201d explained Cohen, who has worked with private clients and addicted teenagers. \u201cI tried to help them focus on expressing themselves through art. Addiction stopped them from feeling, but art is a tricky way to help one to open up. Talking about themselves is hard for them. But, through art, they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Cohen, art helps all of us deal with problems, with voids in our lives, and Avery can testify to the therapeutic effect of art in her own life. A former academic who taught at the University of British Columbia, she has been painting full time since she retired. Her artistic journey started after a trip to Europe in search of her family roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany women in my family, the Rosen family, were murdered by the Nazis because they were Jews. No records exist, but I needed to know them, so I started painting them.\u201d At first, she used old family albums and war photographs to produce her paintings. Her compositions resembled real life and were imbued with sadness, reflecting the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI depicted the murdered women as grim resistance fighters, but it felt constrained. I wanted to distance myself from the sombre historical reality, wanted the women to win. My latest paintings are like giant graphic novels. The women transitioned into gun-slinging folks. They mock the Nazis. They are not victims anymore, not intimidated. I wanted to confront atrocities with my absurd revenge fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show has two Avery paintings on display. One is a giant panel of \u201cRosen Women,\u201d dressed in bright yoga tank tops and fitted cropped pants in neon colors, laughing and brandishing their weapons at Hitler. The second is a small, black and white caricature of Hitler. The pathetic little man depicted doesn\u2019t stand a chance against the droll defiance of the Rosen heroines. The artist\u2019s humor keeps her family alive long after they perished in the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

Nicol-Smith is another retiree who found an artistic second wind. \u201cI always drew,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, as a consulting engineer, my drawings were technical. After I retired 16 years ago, I wanted to paint. I studied painting for two years at Langara.\u201d<\/p>\n

He paints from photographs, his own or those taken by others. One of his best paintings, of a Vancouver beach, is based on a photo taken by his grandfather in the 1900s. Unfortunately, it is not in the exhibit. \u201cMy wife likes it so much she refused to allow me to sell it,\u201d he said. \u201cMy series of paintings on display at the show, \u2018Four Significant Figures,\u2019 is comprised of four male images. I\u2019m interested in the topic of a male body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Nicol-Smith, who retired to paint, his former partner, Bonettemaker, hasn\u2019t retired yet. \u201cI\u2019m an architectural technologist, semi-retired,\u201d he said. \u201cI have been painting watercolors for years. As an artist, I\u2019m self-taught, but my paintings are close to architectural designs, very realistic, with distinctive details: landscapes, seascapes, still life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharp lines and quiet, subdued colors characterize his artwork. His Vancouver streets and shores, totem poles and sailing boats blend reality with fantasy. \u201cI combine photos and imagination in my paintings, sometimes use elements from several different sources in one picture.\u201d All of his paintings are from the 1990s. He hasn\u2019t painted in awhile. \u201cI\u2019m thinking about retiring,\u201d he said. \u201cThen I\u2019ll have more time to paint.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Peretz Painters exhibit runs until Aug 13.<\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left to right: Simon Bonettemaker, Hinda Avery, Claire Cohen and Colin Nicol-Smith. (photo by Olga Livshin) \u201cWe decided we\u2019ll be the Peretz Painters,\u201d said Colin Nicol-Smith, one of the collaborators of the inaugural art show that opened on July 16 at the new art gallery in the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture. The other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[1706,1708,1707,1710,1709],"class_list":["post-5881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual-arts","tag-claire-cohen","tag-colin-nicol-smith","tag-hinda-avery","tag-peretz-centre","tag-simon-bonettemaker"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}