Gord Peteran’s family has summered at Mountain Lake, just north of Minden, since 1934.
While Peteran is known as a sculptor, he has been plein-air painting Mountain Lake for the past 40 years.
Until now, this has remained a private affair, separate from his professional career as an artist.
Accumulating slowly over the years, these small oil sketches have performed much like a secret graphic diary, Minden Hills manager of cultural services, Shannon Kelly, says.
“What is unusual about this undertaking is that almost all 400 oil sketches are of the same view – true north from the family cottage. His exhibition at the Agnes Jamieson Gallery – running until July 12 – is the first time these personal paintings have been presented publicly,” Kelly adds.
Peteran said, “the light changes constantly so I work quickly to fuse an hour of time with a place of the heart, attempting to document not only the trees, clouds and waves, but also the ghosts that collect by a lake.”
Peteran is a Toronto-based sculptor. He has lectured and exhibited extensively throughout North America. His work is held in many private and public collections. Locally, he created the red entranceway for the Haliburton School of Art + Design and has a piece in the Haliburton Sculpture Forest.
While a professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University for over 25 years, Peteran has also taught at The California College of Arts, Sheridan College School of Arts and Crafts, and the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI.
He has been the recipient of numerous Government Arts Council grants and awards throughout his career, including the Jean A. Chalmers National Arts Award. Three exhibition catalogues have been published on his work.
The Agnes Jamieson Gallery is a public gallery with year-round visual exhibitions of local and regional art. The gallery is part of the Minden Hills Cultural Centre, which also includes the Heritage Village and Nature Place Interpretive Centre. The gallery is fully accessible and is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is by donation.
