Modern Renaissance

Painter John Lennard exhibition at 2gallery

John Lennard said his first foray at painting came when he was a fouryear- old. His mother had purchased a large abstract painting and the next morning she found him painting over the piece. “I’m just trying to make it better,” he explained. It would be a number of years before he would in earnest pick up a brush again. He began music lessons five years later, and then took up playing squash five years after that, and both those passions were major drivers in his life. He became a member of Canada’s national squash team, and he crossed the Atlantic to pursue his music passion as a member of a post-punk band. It was while he was in London, England, after a visit to the National Gallery that he realized he wanted to become a painter. He was studying jazz in New York City when he finally made the leap into painting, travelling to Italy to study art. His travels took him to Paris and Berlin, and he was drawn to the Italian Renaissance as well as Abstract Impressionism. “I love the history of art, all the way back to the Italian Renaissance. I like the language of the tradition of painting: rhythms, space, a sense of depth. These are the things I bring into my work when I paint. And then there’s the free-flowing association and trying to be in touch with the emotions through that language,” he said.

Lennard draws a parallel between music and art. “In music, you have points of rest, points of tension, points to resolve things, and cadences, so it’s very similar. It’s almost like literature. You build a story and you have to take the reader somewhere, to make it so that the reader is discovering something within themselves. I think in art you try to have people discover something they already know, but it’s been dormant,” he said. The connection between music and art was in evidence during Saturday’s opening reception at 2gallery, where Lennard played saxophone with Gord Sheard on piano. Lennard says he finds his inspiration for art from his travels, the people that he meets, as well as in the landscape. His paintings are more evocative than descriptive, and while there are some with vivid colour, the palette is more generally soothing shades. He says that original art has value if it opens up your world. “If you look at a great piece of art, for me it just changes me. It makes me sing. It’s like I’m living the life of that artist, to see the things that they saw, and I find that really rejuvenating for me,” he said.

John Lennard’s exhibit runs until June 9 at 2gallery in Picton. Please visit 2gallery.ca for more information.