New: "Let's Celebrate Markets" Art Show and Sale at The J. M. Parrott Art Gallery in Belleville, Ontario from July 21 to August 21.
Opening Reception Saturday, July 23, 2016, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. featuring pianist Yunona Taranova and flamenco guitarist Antonitas d'Havilas. Belleville Market is celebrating 200 year milestone.
NEWS: My studio has moved to Cavan, Ontario
En Plein Air and Marketplace Series at Cavan, Ontario
Current Articles:
http://arabelladesign.com/Valerie_Kent_Winter2015.htm
*The Korean Fish Market" is being shown in Seoul, Korea at the Insadong 31 Gallery in Seoul.
*Please view article in Spain:
In Amsterdam:
http://ifthenisnow.eu/nl/verhalen/world-fine-art-professionals-and-their-key-pieces-29-valerie-kent
Outdoor Painting Workshop coming up early summer at Bayview on Hay Bay please see writeup...
ARTIST STATEMENT Valerie Kent
My current work focuses on social interaction. A basic desire of human beings is to interact, and through connection to make memories, experience happiness, explore what is new and exciting, and to practice commerce. Today we have Facebook, Tumblr, Google, StackArt, Instagram, Linkedin, and a myriad of social media. This flow of information on the Internet is our Silk Road, our virtual marketplace.
Another form of social interaction was and still is our markets. That is why markets continue to prosper and thrive in all parts of the world: their color, activity, produce and people working together. The missing links in the digital world are the face to face, the human contact, the smiles, frowns, yells, noise, the running of hands over tangible material, the smells of spices, fresh fruits and vegetables, bartering and bantering.
The marketplace paintings have taken me on a journey to vibrant colour, to experience and reinterpret these markets by moving abstracted figures into abstracted urban and rural settings, yet I remain true to the visuals and soul of the markets in our world and my premise
that we will always need to connect in important ways to each other.
