It’s a long, drawn-out story, like a visual poem.
Over the next five or six weeks, artist Jennifer Stead will be creating a charcoal landscape on a 125-foot long roll of paper lining the walls at the City Hall Art Gallery.
“It’s both an imaginary landscape and a response to nature,” said Stead on Thursday, the first day of the exhibit. “Because I live in Ottawa, it’s going to be the local environment — the Gatineaus, Mud Lake and it’s also the landscape from my memories, so pieces from Alberta may show up also.”
Visitors can watch as the image evolves. While the mural does not tell a story, per se, Stead said there is a visual narrative running through the piece.
“This is, in a sense, like a book, but it’s abstracted like language is abstracted, there is a sense of the beginning,” she said. “It’s like a visual poem.”
Stead will be in the gallery most days from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. until it’s completed sometime around the middle of April.
The completed drawing will be on view the final week of the exhibition.
