Impressions

Pam Howard

May 2008

Having always lived in the country, Pam Howard has a very close connection to the environment around her and this is what inspires her work. Her ways of seeing nature are recaptured and expressed in a variety of media.

Ever since Pam was young she has enjoyed drawing and she still likes to reduce her subject matter to lines in black and white, allowing the viewer to move into the subject and enjoy the statement it makes without the distraction of colour. Yet more often she captures local colours of sights as they appear to her and turns them into impressions in oil or watercolour. Whether she is looking closely at a group of small hawthorn berries or the wide vistas of land and water which surround us, her paintings engage colour, depth, movement, form and contour. Howard also sees buildings as part of the landscape and includes them in her work as a reminder of the impression humankind has made here.

The collection of works on display at the Gallery spans over ten years of artistic engagement with her environment. Howard sees the show as a celebration of the beautiful vistas of Grey County, especially the Glenelg area. For her, this part of the world, with its abundance of fresh water, trees, plants and animal life, is becoming a special and precious area that is important to record in its present form, hoping that in some small way it can help to draw attention to the plight of our planet.

Pam Howard immigrated from Uganda to Canada in her late teens. Living close to St. Catharines gave her access to the Rodman Hall Art Centre where she studied with Robert Fisher. During her years raising a family and running two businesses, she went wherever and when she could to pursue her art education. Since her retirement Howard calls Glenelg her home.