Owls of Turtle Island / Canada Games and Library Galleries / November 1 – December 19, 2024
Artist Statement
In a Dakota ceremony, I had a vision of an owl. I asked my Elder the significance. He suggested that I paint an owl, because this was my way of understanding things.
I made an owl painting, on a 20” x 16” canvas that had been painted black earlier. I saw how this owl was mirror. I saw how the eyes faced forward, how much they are like us. I saw how in my painting, my heart had not been painted, and I wondered if I wasn’t feeling my heart.
I then found myself in a place where after having been a dedicated abstract painter for 20 years, I was consciously moving away from abstraction, and felt like a fish out of water. This series began by asking the question: “What would figuration look like in my creative universe?” And also: “What is the meaning of the owl?”
I decided I would paint an exhibit of owls. Some were the same format as the one described earlier, I called that series Howl, after the Ginsberg poem, and hung them with what I now only remember as the Big Babies, though I know they had another name. Those are colourful 48” x 48” paintings with bold backgrounds in the colours of the Dakota medicine wheel; Black, Red, Yellow, White.
I started learning about the different owls, and later committed to painting all the species of Canada, and Turtle Island, and when the Howl collection was wrapping up, I looked at my source materials, and found what I thought were interesting shots of screech owls in their nests, and I thought I could do a collection exploring the effects of camouflage, and I would see if I could try make the owls disappear in an optical illusion. These final pieces became the Hidden series.
The owl paintings were made over a period of four years, during which I was doing all sorts of experimentation on other projects, as I was asking myself many questions about painting representationally. I also started painting in oils, and not without difficulty, until everything came together and I found myself saying: “I don’t think I could ever go back to acrylic”, a startling thought after so many years, and having such an bond with it. The final, small series Hidden is oil on canvas rather than acrylic, like the other paintings.
I have found many deep meanings in the subject of owls: their ability to see in the dark, their quiet flight, the ones who live in the night, the sacred feminine of the new moon, the dark night of the soul, grief and mourning (black), wisdom, protector, seeing 360 degrees around, our brother/sisterhood with other living beings, a family oriented bird, and an apex predator…
I want to thank the Saint John Arts Centre for exhibiting my work, and the photographers who generously shared their photographs with me as reference materials; without them there would be no owl paintings.
Biography
Natalie Légère B.A. is a multidisciplinary artist from Moncton, NB, Canada. Her recent solo exhibits include Raptors, Galerie Marie-Hélène Allain, Bouctouche, NB, Impressions: Mandalas from Still Life, Galerie 12, Moncton, NB, and Pastels, Galerie Assomption, Moncton, NB. Légere has participated in many group exhibits, artist residencies, and has taught painting to different age groups.
She recently undertook deep changes in her painting practice going from abstract acrylic painting to figurative oil painting, which required a two year painting mentorship with Dustin Neece, a former apprentice of Odd Nerdrum’s, and workshops with Living Masters, such as: Camille Prezwodek, Anne Blair Brown, and Maggie Rose, to name a few. The works in this exhibit were made during that period of transition, some are acrylic and the later ones, oil.
Natalie lives in Woodstock First Nations, NB, with her spouse, two young children, and an orange cat named Mittens. She adheres to Native Spirituality, and this influences many aspects of her life. Légère is an active member of artists’ associations, locally, nationally, and internationally. She is preparing for a second two artists’ exhibit with Roch Bourque, in February 2025: Couleurs, Galerie 12, Moncton, NB.
Many thanks to Kelly Galbraith for her wonderful interview with Natalie Légère!