Jay Isaac

The Beauty of Things, In This World, Now and Always

September 7 - October 6

"I began making these paintings when I moved back to Saint John, NB a year ago. Saint John is a strange and beautiful place. It lives in the great divide between culture and industry, with little concern for the fashionable. My home town persuaded me to paint with fresh eyes. Some of the works were made while on a road trip this summer across Canada and the US. The notion of travel, as a way of being in the moment and reacting to the surroundings, is mirrored in the paintings I made along the way. Some of the drawings were made on a trip I took to Mexico. Before I went I decided to leave my camera at home and if I saw something I liked, I would have to sit down and spend time with it. In the tradition of the Impressionists or historical Canadian painting, these paintings are reflections of being in some place at some time, documenting the simple things I encounter on a daily basis. The finished pieces act as surrogates, or time capsules for the moments spent engaged with something outside myself. The things I choose to paint usually aren't remarkable or fantastic. They tend to be simple things that can easily be missed if one is not looking for them. It is in fact this modesty that I find interesting."

Jay Isaac, August 2007