| |
Sheila Norgate
|
|
|
|
|
Please click on the images below for larger photos.
We ship worldwide and guarantee safe arrival!
|
|
|
WONDER WREN
|
SHN130
acrylic, canvas
30" x 40"
|
|
07-58 |
|
$ 4400 CDN
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Please email the gallery to be notified when new work by Sheila Norgate arrives.
|
Sheila Norgate
|
|
|
Sheila Norgate was born in 1950 in the heart of downtown Toronto in the back seat of her uncle's late model Buick. Like most girls of her vintage, she was herded towards all things domestic, and save for an incident in grade eleven when she convinced
authorities to allow her to drop home economics in favour of commercial design, she displayed no particular aptitude towards the arts. After high school Norgate drifted with the rest of her grad class flotsam into University where she learned how to
smoke a pipe and protest social injustice. Two years later and still not actually qualified to do anything, she assumed an entry level position with a major bank and before you could say "accidental and bland career" one such thing yawned open before
her. She soon crossed the country by train and settled on the West Coast.
By 1983 the unlived life was nipping at her heels like a badly behaved poodle and Norgate was forced to take a leave from banking to recover from major abdominal surgery.
While recuperating she bought herself a set of cheap watercolors and embarked on a course of serious dabbling. In those small hard tablets of pigment, she began to locate a voice, her voice. She enrolled in a local art school but dropped out after only
a brief stint, convinced that she needed to find her own way. Since then she has done just that.
Artist Statement
" I had no intention of becoming an artist. There was no childhood dream, no revelationary moment, no intuitive flash,
and no channeling of Emily Carr. It was more that the spectre of art making appeared before me as an inflatable raft to a drowning woman and I hauled myself onto it as a way to save my life. I needed to see myself and know myself. Not surprisingly, I
am virtually self-taught.
I work primarily in acrylic paint on canvas. I love this medium. I love how it forgives and forgets, how it lets me put it wherever I want, how it dries fast when I am impatient to move on. I work fairly
energetically, not wanting to prune back any impulse that arises. I rarely plan what I am going to do and I try not to think too much about what that will be. I spend a lot of time getting out of my own way. This is not as easy as you'd
think.
The text that always appears in my work is vitally important to me. It acts as a further extension of myself, another layer of enunciation and emancipation and I grow more committed to its use with every passing day. Humour is also
critical. It's a big part of how I see the world.
I've been kept company by a few recurring motifs over the years, most notably hearts and birds. Lately, dog-like creatures have joined the fray. I'd love to be able to attribute this to some
more exotic phenomena, but truth be told, it is a simple case of art imitating life. My partner and I adopted a small maltese-poodle cross and life has never been the same.
I would describe the practice of making art as requiring a mix of rapt
dedication and raw conviction. It is one of the purest acts of faith that I know about. World events of recent years have made it difficult at times for me to sustain such self-directed and singular focus and yet in my heart I believe that it is
through this re-visiting of ourselves over and over again in the creative process, that we make a small stitch in the weave of our shared humanity. I try to remember that the birds begin their song each day in darkness, gently spreading a tapestry of
faith across the land."
|
Sheila Norgate
Awards
2002 Calona Wines Artist Series Label Collection, Vancouver, BC
1998 Best Books of 1997, Quill and Quire, February 1998
1998 Shortlisted for VanCity Book Prize("Storm Clouds Over Party Shoes"), Vancouver
Collections
Alberta Futurewest, Calgary Alberta
J.J. Barnicke, Calgary Alberta
McLeod & Company, Calgary Alberta
TWC Corporation, Calgary Alberta
Utilicorp, Calgary Alberta
Westin Hotels, Whistler BC
A Lovin’ Spoonful, Vancouver BC
Arbutus Society for Children, Victoria, BC
BC Women’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC
Battered Women’s Support Services, Vancouver BC
Marquis Wine Cellars, Vancouver, BC
Pacific Coast Savings Credit Union, Victoria, BC
Women’s Monument Project, Vancouver, BC
Fairmont Hotels, Toronto Ontario
Genesis Oil and Gas, Calgary Alberta
Exhibitions
2005 Wallace Gallery, Calgary, AB
2004 Agnes Bulgera Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2004 Ingram Gallery, Toronto, ON
2004 Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2003 Art Gallery of Victoria (Art Rental), Victoria BC
2003 G"Simply Trees", Canada House Gallery, Banff, AB
2002 Agnes Bugera Gallery, Edmonton Alberta
2002 Ingram Gallery, Toronto Ontario
2002 Atelier Gallery, Vancouver BC
2002 Artworks, Gabriola Island BC
2001 Wallace Gallery, Calgary, AB
2001 "Island Girls" Canada House Gallery, Banff, AB
2001 Bugera/Kmet Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2001 Ingram Gallery, Toronto, ON
2000 Artworks, Vancouver, BC
2000 Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1999 Atelier Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1999 Fran Willis Gallery, Victoria, BC
1998 Martin Bachelor Gallery, Victoria, BC
1998 "After Her Own Heart," Diana Paul Gallery, Calgary, AB
1998 "House of Mirrors," Round House Community Centre, Vancouver, BC
1998 "Selfish Slaves of Zines and Animation," A Space, Toronto, ON
1997 Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1997 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC
1997 Scott Gallery, Edmonton, AB
1997 Horizon/Laverty Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1997 4th International Conference of the Visual Arts Council Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1996 "50 Years: 50 Objects," Community Arts Council, Vancouver, BC
1995 Community Arts Council Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1995 Barton Leier Gallery, Victoria, BC
1994 The Doctor Viagri Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1994 "Work in Progress", Window Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1994 Barton Leier Gallery, Victoria, BC
1992 Barton Leier Gallery, Victoria, BC
1991 - 92 Bridge Street Gallery, Vancouver, BC
1991 Nunavut Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Publications
2002 'Portrait of an artist', Mo magazine, Nanaimo BC
2001 'The Art of Living', Nanaimo News Bulletin, Nanaimo BC
2000 'Sheila Norgate: each with a story', Preview Magazine, Vancouver
2000 'Visual Literacy', Venue Magazine, Vancouver Island
2000 'Painting from the Inside Out', Nanaimo Daily News, Nanaimo BC
1999 'The Studio of Sheila Norgate', Gabriola Sounder
1998 'Nice Girls Might want to skip this Rule Book', Edmonton Free Press
1998 'New and Noted', Globe and Mail
1998 'Tweaking Your Funny Bone', Xtra West
1998 'Her Heart Held a Party', Kinesis
1997 'Etiquette Nasty', The Vancouver Sun
1997 'The Lady is a Tramp', Quill & Quire
1997 'Storm Clouds Over Party Shoes', Kathleen Hickey, Georgia Straight
1997 'Nostalgia Under Relentless Gaze', Paula Gustofson, XTra West
1997 Norgate, Sheila. "Storm Clouds Over Party Shoes: Etiquette Problems for the Ill-Bred Woman," Press Gang
1995 'Divergent Looks at Discrimination and Oppression', Robin Laurence, Vancouver Sun
1994 "Wit and Wisdom at Forefront of Exhibitions", Paula Gustofson, Xtra West
1993 'Women Speak Thru Art', Royal City Record/Now
1993 "Show Explores Women's Issues Through Art", Douglas College News
1993 "Coast Defies Purists" Vancouver Xtra West
1993 "Robert Amos on Art" Victoria Times Colonist
1992 "Art Show Rocks Boat" Kinesis
1992 "Robert Amos on Art" Victoria Times Colonist
1991 "Wearable Art" Victoria Times Colomist
1990 "Just for Laughs" Victoria Boulevard Magazine
1990 "Psychic Frostbite Thaws into Splendor' Victoria Times Colonist
1989 'Sheila Norgate', Gallerie Women's Art, Vancouver
1989 'Sheila Norgate Recent Work" La Rosa, Victoria
1989 "Sheila Norgate...Art from the Heart" Focus on Women, Victoria
1988 'Backroom Gallery Moves Uptown", Business Report, Victoria
1988 "Gallery Opens Fittingly with Upbeat Hearts and Flowers" Victoria Times Colonist
|
|
|
All images copyrighted by the artists.
|
