Roberts Creek Arts Festival * May long weekend

GORDON HALLORAN studio is featured in the first inaugural Roberts Creek Arts Festival, held during the May 19 - 20. 2 days of music, art, film & food at 7 Roberts Creek venues, showcasing local and international talent.

Within the hidden forests along the beaches of the Sunshine Coast in Roberts Creek are some of Canada’s foremost contemporary artists and creators: painters, musicians, sound artists, film makers, sculptors and designers. Surrounded by nature, equipped with technology, they contribute to the global, creative,social, and material culture.

Each of the 7 beautiful venues will be filled with creativity, performances, delicious local food & drink, and engaging people throughout the weekend.

ABOUT GORDON HALLORAN:
Gordon Halloran is well known to world audiences as the creator of Paintings Below Zero. His monumental public art installations of non representational paintings in ice have fascinated audiences in Chicago (Millennium Park 2008), at Toronto City Hall (2007), at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and other international locations. In 2006, Halloran was Canada’s official representative to the Cultural Olympiad for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, where he created an enormous installation filling a deconsecrated church at the Fortessa di Fenestrelle (www.paintingsbelowzero.blogspot.com)

Invited to be feature artist for Public Art at the Miami International Art Fair and Art Palm Beach in 2010, Halloran recently installed Lotus in Motion, a site-specific series of floating paintings at VanDusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver, Canada (2011) and Sun Yat Sen Gardens in Vancouver (2012).

GORDON HALLORAN STUDIO
VENUE #4
For the inaugural Roberts Creek Arts Festival, at VENUE #4, art lovers can experience floating paintings in the garden pond plus a myriad of techniques and forms both abstract and representational in the many works of art at Halloran’s garden studio.

Featured on studio walls: HUNG JURY, 12 life-size portraits in mixed media surrounding the viewer as accused. Caitlin Hicks, playwright and performer will embody one of the quirky characters with a short performance. Also featured will be Jackie Allen Gye, jazz vocalist, accompanied by pianist Ken Dalgleish. Performance times: tba

Additionally, visitors can view floating paintings in the studio pond and see images from his Paintings Below Zero work in public art with Torino Collection. Books on his Italy installation will be for sale as well as small giclees of the floating paintings. Food, beverages and music will also be featured.

Meditation on Lotus: Family

Writers' Cafe Special Edition Time: 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM Location: The Arts Building, Gibsons Presented By: The Arts Building Cost: $10 at the door (by donation) Writer/actress Caitlin Hicks emcees this special edition of the Writers' Cafe. This is one of several events held in conjunction with the opening of artist Gordon Halloran's Meditation on Lotus, floating artwork inspired by nature. The theme for the evening is "Family" in its broadest sense.

Halloran to showcase LOTUS in Paris at Jardins, Jardin (aux Tuileries)

International artist Gordon Halloran, known worldwide for his public art paintings in ice (www. paintingsbelowzero.com) has been invited to create an installation of floating paintings Lotus in Motion at an exhibit in the Tuileries Garden in Paris. Lotus en Mouvement will be showcased in a garden pond as part of an exhibition called Jardins, Jardin between May 31st and June 3rd in Paris in the gardens around the Louvre. (www.jardinsjardin.com).

Partnered with The Louvre and the Tuileries Garden, Jardins, Jardin is a national event in the heart of Paris dedicated to outdoor design and the art of living in the garden, an exhibition of creativity and innovation.


Eliane and Michel Cumet, Landscape architects of a company called PASTILLE, have partnered with Halloran to exhibit Lotus en Mouvement in one of the 20 featured gardens of the exhibition. Additionally, PASTILLE will market these individual paintings designed for personal ponds, pools and water features. Halloran will design the exhibit for Jardins, Jardin.


Photos by Mike Halloran, taken at exhibit of Lotus in Motion at VanDusen Botanical Garden, Summer 2011.

Yoga by the Sea to host new Lotus in Motion exhibit by Gordon Halloran

MEDITATION ON LOTUS: FAMILY

March 15, 2012 - Roberts Creek artist Gordon Halloran, known worldwide for his Olympic installations in ice (www. paintingsbelowzero.com) will open an exhibit of paintings called Meditation on Lotus: Family as part of his Lotus in Motion work.

The large open studio space of Yoga by the Sea in Roberts Creek is the setting for the exhibit. These are paintings that began the artist’s exploration of Lotus, and are part of his process of creating the floating paintings that have become Lotus in Motion. Meditation on Lotus: Family will include early paintings exhibited at the Miami International Art Fair, and Art Palm Beach, 2011, where the artist was invited to be the featured artist in Pubic Art.

The local exhibit will be made up of permanent paintings in the shape of the lily pad, bold in colour, varied in size and created from a variety of materials. Some of the lightweight paintings exhibited in Miami, which floated in the air, attached by a mere string, will be displayed at the Yoga-by-the-Sea as well as the mixed media paintings in cradled panel. All paintings share texture, brilliant colour, lacework and mystery not only with the with the artist's paintings in the water, but also his past, ephemeral work in ice.


In 2011, the artist created a public art installation of floating paintings in the shape of a lotus leaf at VanDusen Botanical Garden during the summer months.

As part of the process for creating this artwork, the artist studied the patterns and hues of nature surrounding the lotus in the garden. His observation that every shape and pattern in nature can be found in permutations in other organic materials is expressed on the surface of each painting thorough the colors and textures of landscape flora and fauna.



The paintings themselves are grouped in ‘families’, distinctive by their colour and pattern. The juxtaposition of the different families of paintings creates a visual impression of the connectedness of all organic matter. With these paintings, the artist expresses this observation of linkages and shared characteristics, as well as the relationships that humans create and call ‘family’. In Chinese lore, the stalk of the lotus plant is easy to bend in two, but is very hard to break because of its many strong sinuous fibres. Thus the lotus can represent an unbreakable relationship between two lovers or the members within a family.

The paintings will be on display until April 30th. A special reception on Sunday, April 15th from 3 – 5 PM is planned at Yoga by the Sea, with the artist in attendance.

To contact the artist: Caitlin Hicks 1 (604) 886-3634

Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden to host LOTUS

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver’s Chinatown is the setting for the next LOTUS installation by Gordon Halloran, made up of multiple paintings in the shape of the lily pad, bold in colour and varied in size. Visitors will see the artwork as they walk the paths, touring the gardens.

As part of the process for creating this artwork, the artist studied the patterns and hues of nature surrounding the lotus in the garden. His observation that every shape and pattern in nature can be found in permutations in other organic materials is expressed on the surface of each painting thorough the colors and textures of landscape flora and fauna.

The paintings themselves are grouped in ‘families’, distinctive by their colour and pattern. These ‘families’ float and move together on the water in relation to each other and to the landscape. The juxtaposition of the different families of paintings creates a visual impression of the connectedness of all organic matter.

With these water paintings, the artist expresses this observation of linkages and shared characteristics, as well as the relationships that humans create and call ‘family’. In Chinese lore, the stalk of the lotus plant is easy to bend in two, but is very hard to break because of its many strong sinuous fibres. Thus the lotus can represent an unbreakable relationship between two lovers or the members within a family.

Additionally, the lotus is connected to Buddhism, symbolizing purity and perfection. The roots of a lotus are in the mud, the stem grows up through the water, and the scented flower blooms above the water, basking in the sunlight. This suggests the progress of the soul from the mud of materialism and suffering, through the waters of experience, and into the sunshine of enlightenment.

To contact the artist: Caitlin Hicks (604) 886-3634

LOTUS revealed

Lotus in Motion brings focus to water, the beauty of clean water and its importance as part of the natural world. With lightweight paintings that float atop translucent water, the artist has created an artwork in response to nature, in cooperation with nature's beauty.


As water holds the work, Lotus reflects nature's shapes, forms and colors. Wing and leaf, feather and petal, all coalesce in Halloran's vibrant palette.



"A really unique and unforgettable dialogue between man and nature, technology and emotion." - Giorgetto Giugiaro, founder & chairman, Italdesign referring to the artist's monumental installation at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games (www.gordonhalloran.com)

LOTUS at Art Crawl

We're taking part in the Sunshine Coast's 2nd Art Crawl, October 21st-23rd. In Roberts Creek, you can see the colourful installation of Gord Halloran's LOTUS IN MOTION in the garden pond.

Friday night from 7 PM to 9 we welcome all with beverages and socializing -- and a view of Halloran's other permanent artwork from the two Olympic Winter Games - 2006 in Turin and 2010 in Vancouver. Also featured will be a variety of retrospective work - some representational, painterly and provocative. Come meet the artist.

The Art Crawl offers Crawlers access to 108 participating galleries and art studios, representing over 175 artists along the entire Sunshine Coast Highway from Langdale to Lund.