Inspiring emotions with colour

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

For artist Krysia Gallien, painting is not about reproducing figures and scenes; instead, she uses the colours and brushstrokes to evoke different emotions and moods.

“It’s less about looking at it with your eyes and more about painting from the heart,” said the Pointe Claire resident, who has also been teaching yoga since 1975 and runs the Centre for Creative Being, a holistic health centre, in the Pointe Claire Village.

Gallien will be exhibiting some of her watercolours at the Beaconsfield Library in March and the Beaconsfield United Church in April, and says she hopes her pieces will draw viewers in.

“The idea is just to go beyond nosing the painting — just going up to it close and looking at every detail. You want to step back and let the painting invite you in so you can experience it,” she said.

With bright colours, Gallien’s paintings depict mythological figures, landscapes and waterscapes, and flowers, without going into minute detail. Instead, she suggests forms without defining them, in order to let the viewers experience the art in their own ways.

“Colours are very powerful and they resonate with the different centres of the body,” she said. “If the colours are harmonious – which is what I’m aspiring to do – it creates a harmony in you.”

Michèle Janis, co-ordinator of cultural services at the Beaconsfield Library, said colour is exactly what made Gallien’s paintings stick out during the exhibit selection process.

“I remember that hers are quite vibrant watercolours, whereas some watercolours tend to be muted,” Janis said. “Hers were vibrant, bright, creative, and very expressive.”

Over the past year and a half, Gallien says she has created about 25 paintings, many of them fairly large in size. “I’m hoping to sell some of my pieces (through the exhibit), because now I have more paintings then I can keep at my home,” she said, laughing. “And I really want to keep painting.”

For more information on Krysia Gallien and the Centre for Creative Being, visit www.creativebeing.com. Her exhibit, titled Dreaming in Colour, will run at the Beaconsfield Library, 303 Beaconsfield Blvd., throughout March. The vernissage is Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. For opening hours, call the library at 514-428-4460.