By: Christian Collington, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, TheIFP.ca
For local artist and curator Marlene Madole, the news that her painting was selected for the Royal Collection Trust was the fulfilment of a “lifetime dream.”
Madole, who lives in Glen Williams, is one of 25 artists across Canada chosen to gift a painting to King Charles III, effectively completing an initiative to create a body of 100 works for The Royal Collection.
The first 75 watercolour paintings were gifted in 1985 and 2000. The final 25 pieces were created by current elected and life members of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC).
King Charles III is an honorary member of the CSPWC.
While the selection is a professional triumph for Madole, a lifetime member of the CSPWC and a past two-time president, her painting — a watercolour titled “Shadowscape II, Grapes” — carries a personal resonance that stretches back to the First World War.
Madole said her grandmother was an English war bride from Maidenhead, England, who met her grandfather while he was stationed near Windsor Castle in the Canadian Army Medical Corps’ hospital.
They eventually moved to British Columbia, establishing an orchard in the Okanagan region.
“I wanted to do homage to her hometown, under 10 miles from Windsor Castle, but also to what they built in fairly new British Columbia,” she said.
She added that the grapes depicted were grown on the land her family farmed.
Describing the inspiration for “Shadowscape II, Grapes,” Madole highlighted the transformative power of light.
“I just love the luminosity of a transparent fruit,” she said. “As soon as you have light coming through it or beside it, it brings out all these other colours.”
Madole has been a fixture of the Ontario art scene for decades, maintaining a space at Williams Mill Creative Arts Studios in Glen Williams for over 30 years.
Her experience as an educator at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the Royal Ontario Museum has further refined her craft, having her “coalesce” her intuitive painting process into techniques she can convey to others.
Despite the success, she remains deeply rooted in the local landscape, frequently practising plein air (outdoor) painting along the Credit River and around Georgetown.
Before the 25 works depart across the Atlantic for their permanent home in the Royal Collection in Windsor, England, residents will have an opportunity to view them as a cohesive national body of work.
The Helson Gallery (9 Church St., Georgetown) will host an exhibition showcasing the pieces starting Feb. 4 and running until March 1. It can be viewed during the gallery’s opening hours, which are Wednesday to Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
The gallery will also host a closing reception on March 1 from 1 to 3 p.m.
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