Heather Latter
A new exhibit entitled “Eclectic Expressions,” featuring digital art by local artist Penny Faragher, opens tonight at the Fort Frances Museum.
“My art is based on anything that holds a bit of fascination for me,” Faragher explained.
“That could be architecture, design, trees, words—I love all of these things and I try to incorporate all that into my art,” she noted.
Faragher said she tries to create works of art that will evoke different emotions in people.
“And also to see things through my eyes, so to speak, because sometimes we go around life not really looking at things,” she remarked.
“We see certain things every day and we don’t pay attention.”
The images featured in Faragher’s exhibit are taken from Rainy River District or other small towns in Northwestern Ontario, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
“I think [people] would be surprised when they see the work that these pictures were taken close to home,” she said.
But Faragher stressed her art is much more than photography.
“I take the photo and then I download it on the computer and I play with it,” she explained.
“It’s actually kind of like I paint with it.
“I alter it and change colours, and use different brushes to create some of the other images or colours behind and within the picture.”
With computer programs such as Photoshop, Faragher said it’s possible to make a photo look like a painting, which is what she’s done.
Faragher began her artistic career with watercolour and pen-and-ink mediums, but began with the digital art when she couldn’t afford to go out and buy paints.
She had a computer program and started playing around with the features.
“From there, I just kept experimenting,” she remarked.
“I’m only doing a small part of what the program is capable of,” she added. “I look forward to learning more and more about it because there is so much you can do.
“It’s incredible.”
Faragher became interested in art at a very young age while growing up in Minneapolis.
“My first recollection is when I was four or five years old,” she recalled. “There was an old church across the street from our house and I had gone there to do crafts.
“I think I caught the bug then.
“It’s just been something I love to do,” she enthused.
Faragher said she’s mostly self-taught as she began with drawing as a child, then moved towards painting in her high school years.
Her art teacher back then was Jim West, a well-known and talented watercolour artist from International Falls.
While Faragher has done some landscape and still life pieces, she prefers her creative works.
“My art is eclectic, a little unusual,” she admitted. “I love design, so a lot of my art has an art nouveau flavour.
“It has lots of colour.”
Faragher said she’s thrilled to be having her own exhibit for the first time after putting her art aside for several years.
“I had to work full-time and raise the kids,” she explained, saying now that her youngest child is grown and pretty much out of the house, she’s ready to get back into her passion.
“I had to deal with the empty nest syndrome,” she chuckled. “So I finally gave myself permission to do what I really like to do, and that’s my art and writing.”
She added her husband also has been great with encouraging her to concentrate more on her art.
“I’m going to keep on learning more about the digital art and who knows where that will go,” said Faragher.
“And I do miss the hands-on feel of actually painting . . . I’m hoping in the future to try acrylic and do more abstract.”
Faragher’s exhibit, which also will be on display later this year at the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre, as well as the Fine Line Art Gallery, is made possible by a grant from the Ontario Arts Council.
An opening reception for “Eclectic Expressions” is set for today from 7-9 p.m. upstairs at the museum.
