Crystal Beshara | Farmhouse Menagerie (The Teatime Tales)

Crystal Beshara | Farmhouse Menagerie (The Teatime Tales)

October 5 – 19

Vernissage: Saturday Oct 5 @ 3 - 5 pm, with an artist talk at 3:30 pm

WALL SPACE GALLERY is proud to present “Farmhouse Menagerie (The Teatime Tales)” Crystal Beshara fuses her fine art background with her fondest childhood memories in portraits of farm animals. From regal ewes to clumsy Highland cows Beshara delves into allegorical tales of rural life and ideas of urban sprawl with a deep slice of nostalgia. Beshara’s oil paintings and watercolours feature many of the animals that populated her own childhood home growing up on a farm.

This series in particular is infused with inspiration from Beatrix Potter and Richard Scary; spaces where Beshara’s younger self felt she could interact and even converse with the animals around her. Within these stories animals would give insight about their lives habits and behavior outside of the basic domesticated characteristics and traditional roles we see them in on a farm. Their personification developed empathy compassion and deep curiosity within Beshara.

“Farmhouse Menagerie” draws its influence from such experiences. Where everyday animals are juxtaposed sometimes eloquently and at other times awkwardly and clumsily against the human world. It also speaks to the decline in the rural landscape and massive changes in agriculture both positive and negative. On the one hand having moved back to the countryside Beshara sees an increase in young farmers interested in exploring alternative more humane ways of farming and permaculture. On the other hand urban sprawl is leading to the elimination of grazing fields and gardens through the destruction of old farms and barns in favour of big steel – industrial constructs and management. Across this body of works Beshara humanizes the animals who inhabit rural spaces flipping the script on human sprawl and allowing them to invade our home spaces instead.

Crystal Beshara is a Canadian contemporary realist painter and proud two-time winner of the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation prize. A self-taught realist her childhood was spent drawing and observing life on a farm and the quiet connective world in which she lived. Even after moving to Ottawa to receive her BFA in Studio Arts Crystal's strong rural narrative continued to play a huge role in her paintings. Her style is a juxtaposition of two worlds; her love of realism collides with her post-secondary studies creating expressive and emotionally charged works that have been collected by corporate private and commercial clients.

Beshara is a member of the National Guild of Realism was the youngest elected fellow of The Ottawa Watercolour Society and also holds a Botanical Illustration diploma from the Society of Botanical Artists (UK). She has illustrated four published children's books including her original story When I Visit the Farm and has been featured in several local and national publications.

We look forward to welcoming you to the gallery for the vernissage Saturday Oct 5 @ 3 - 5 pm! The artist will be in attendance and giving an artist talk at 3:30 pm.

613.729.0003 [email protected]

1090 Bank St Ottawa ON K1S 3X5

Host or Publisher Wall Space Gallery + Framing