Swinging Into Summer

Good Day Art Hollis Friends and Family,

Ahhh summer and all the childhood memories it brings.
Remember this?

The Swing — Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

The carefree childhood days of summer.

I remember feeling the wind on my face as I pump my sunburned legs back and forward for the momentum. My thick, warm, unkempt brown braids slap my cheeks as I swing back… and then… turning freckled cheeks up to the sun and closing my eyes to its brilliance, we swing forward and with shrieks of glee, flavoured ever so slightly with trepidation… I dare to jump!

At that moment I know how it must feel to be a bird. Flying high and fast into the air and then down, down into the green deliciousness of scented grass.

Lovely.

That feeling of flying off the swing and landing in the grass, before any of us knew what a mortgage or a fence line was, is close to the spirit of our August show. Before You Settled asks us to look at the land the way Cris describes that jump: wide open, a little wild, and ours before anyone decided to own it.

August Featured Artist: Gillian Lazanik — Before You Settled

August Featured Artist: Gillian Lazanik — Before You Settled

Everyday Gillian starts with a big mug of coffee, but when she puts her artist hat on in her home studio, it's tea… all the way!

Where most artists start their creations with paint, Gillian starts by getting out a tin of dry tea leaves. She has spent years developing her own proprietary process of creating contemporary landscapes on specially prepared canvases using acrylic paint, oil paint and dry tea leaves. That's right, real dry, loose tea leaves. The kind of dry tea (not in the little bags!) most of us would add to hot water and steep to drink.

The tea leaves do far more than add an interesting story. They create rich, organic textures and subtle earth tones that echo Nova Scotia's rugged coastlines, weathered fields, and windswept marshes. Combined with layers of acrylic paint, they give each piece a depth and warmth that simply can't be duplicated with conventional materials.

Like nature itself, Gillian doesn't try to control every outcome. Her process embraces texture, layering, and a little unpredictability. Each painting evolves over time, revealing hidden details the longer you stand before it. It's the artistic equivalent of taking a quiet walk along the shore — you always notice something new.

After years of experimentation, Gillian has refined a technique that is entirely her own. The recipe remains a closely guarded secret, but the results speak for themselves. Her paintings are contemporary, calming, and unmistakably East Coast, inviting viewers to slow down and savour the moment.

So, the next time someone offers you a cup of tea, remember Gillian Lazanik. She may be one of the few people who looks at dry loose tea leaves and thinks, "Now that belongs on a canvas."

And no, before you ask, they're not scratch-and-sniff. At least not when it's dry!

About the show: Before You Settled showcases raw landscapes as they existed before humans entered the picture — Nova Scotia's coast and countryside stripped back to the wild, unclaimed state that came before roads, fences, and rooftops.