Les Tableaux de Coin-du-Banc en folie
Guelph artist Lyn Westfall was the Artist-in-Residence at the IICSI’s 2017 session of Musical Improvisation at Land’s End (MILE) Camp in Coin-du-Banc, Québec. MILE Camp culminates in a concert performance by camp participants and camp faculty at the Corner of the Beach Cultural Museum, in Gaspé, Québec. During the concert this year, Westfall live painted each performance in watercolour and described her process and experience in a recent email.
“I had a table placed at the back of the church, with a wide selection of watercolours laid out on my palette, brushes, water and watercolour paper. I was advised beforehand that there would be 14, 3-minute improv acts. The first watercolour (blue), deals with the entrance of the participants in which a single line was formed, each person humming an individual sound. Marianne Trudel would introduce each act, while I prepared for the next. I simply responded to ‘what I was hearing’ – rapidly using colour, shape and rhythmic brush strokes. I must say the experience was ‘hair-raising!’ No time for thinking – just pure response! This is improvisional painting and music! The most rewarding part of this venture was seeing the participants eagerly rush back to try to pick out ‘their performance watercolour!’
Westfall has been actively painting for over 40 years. She obtained her degree in Fine Arts at the University of Windsor and has studied at various institutions, including the University of Guelph, the Banff School of Fine Arts, York University, and most recently at the British Institute of Florence, Italy. Music has always been an important component in her art practice. In 2000 – 2003 she painted Gabriel Faure’s, REQUIEM, resulting in seventeen oil paintings that were exhibited in a solo exhibition at Gallery Lambton in 2003, and later in at St. Peter’s Seminary Lecture Series in 2005.
Westfall has an upcoming exhibition, Improv ● Vision – Lyn Westfall paints Music, at the Ashlar Gallery, in Boarding House Arts, 6 Dublin Street S., in Guelph, Ontario from October 14 – November 18, 2017. She is hosting an opening reception for the exhibition on October 14, 2017, from 1pm to 3pm.
To learn more about Lyn Westfall, visit her website http://www.lynwestfall.com.
