Close to the Heart

Jack Aldersley

November 2014

Picasso once said, “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” Jack Adersley’s visual diary is a journey he began in the early 1970’s when he took up classes at the New School of Art in Toronto while he was still working full-time at his accounting firm in Hanover. His artistic pursuits came to an abrupt end when his vision started to deteriorate.

From 1989 to 1994 is the most prolific and dynamic period of Aldersley’s artistic life. In those years he created still lifes, landscapes, portraitures, and travel paintings inspired by the places he saw while sailing around the world.

Aldersley’s captivating paintings favour an impressionistic style infused with the richness of bold colours, fond memories, and the joy of living. Scenes and subjects he has captured with eloquence and atmosphere include: a coastal view of a town in Croatia; abundant Trilliums in a forest near Ayton; the rugged natural beauty of Lake Huron’s North Channel that once inspired the Group of Seven; last strong rays of sunset raking across the waters in the Gulf of Alaska, street life in Japan and Bali, the breathtaking beauty and unspoiled landscape of Unalaska Island. Aldersley’s rich imagery evokes the spirit of those places and speaks to our senses.