Energy and Light

Pop-up art show at County Arts Lab

Apop-up show featuring the paintings of Claudia Jean McCabe and the sculpture of Tom Ashbourne was held at the County Arts lab in the Armoury over this past weekend. The Lab is operated by the Prince Edward County Arts Council (PECAC) and the space is used for classes or workshops and exhibitions on an ongoing basis. Tom’s wife, Linda Tuck Chapman, read about the space and contacted PECAC to find out if it could be used as for a pop-up show. The Arts Council gave their okay, and Linda started to think whether another artist could share the space, since she believed that Tom’s sculpture needed something complementary. The first name that came to mind was Claudia’s. There is, in fact, a certain similarity in Tom’s and Claudia’s art careers, even though they work in different mediums and have practised their craft for different lengths of time. When Claudia was around 40, she decided to go back to college to study graphic design, and quite by chance discovered she had a talent for painting. “I finally realized that this was what I was meant to do,” she says. That was over 30 years ago, and she hasn’t looked back. “I don’t paint realistically. I paint entirely from my heart and from my imagination. It’s a form of soul expression for me. I never know what is going to come out, and that to me is so compelling.”

Sculptor Tom Ashbourne (front) with artist Claudia Jean McCabe (L) and Linda Tuck Chapman at the County Arts Lab in the Armoury.

Tom’s career as a sculptor started around 2014. At the time, he was working in corporate finance, and was an avid collector of art. Linda somehow knew in her heart that Tom had an innate talent for three-dimensional art, and arranged for him to take lessons from the late David Boorne, a County sculptor. Linda’s instinct proved true. “All of a sudden, I found this was my true calling in terms of the arts,” says Tom. “The skills I had in my corporate life, I translated those skills to looking at pieces of stone and seeing things that other people didn’t see, and then bringing them out of the stone. It’s about being open to what could be and not what I wanted it to be. I’m always working to find what the stone is telling me. The stone tells me when it is ready, and if the conversation isn’t working I put it on the shelf and wait ’til later.” Over the past eight years, Tom has honed his skills, and last year he was invited to show his work at the Florence Biennale.

This idea of a piece of art evolving from the spirit is common to both Tom and Claudia, as is the notion of the piece having a certain energy. “Energy is so important. Everyone is attracted to it, so if you have a piece with lots of energy, everybody likes it,” says Tom. Both artists make use of flow and colour and texture, with Tom adding three-dimensional shape into the mix. Claudia has curated many shows over her career, and at first thought the mix of her paintings and Tom’s sculpture would prove a challenge to provide the proper flow. “This show just seemed to come together. A lot of it has to do with colour, a lot of it has to do with the energy. Tom’s work, because he’s working with very hard objects, there’s an organic aspect to them too. Similarly with my work there’s a softness, but also hard-edged, so it just married well. Tom and Linda and I all had goose bumps when we saw it all together,” says Claudia. For more information about Tom’s and Claudia’s art, please visit tomashbourne.com or cjmccabe.com.