Anita Murpy June 2021

It’s Not Strangers
Anita Murphy

Anita Murphy has been painting for forty years

Her work is in collections internationally and domestically

She has studied at St. Lawrence College of Art, Schneider School of Fine Arts and Toronto School of Arts

For online purchases please send artist’s name & title of artwork to: gallery@ludmilagallery.ca

Spring Sun on my Face – Barbara Allport – Artist – Landscape Painter
Oil on Canvas 20” x 16” $500

“It Isn’t Strangers”

… whose portraits you are looking at right now. It isn’t strangers who have been near you and around you, making their art, helping to make your art possible, being seen and unseen.

This is about being seen. Something happens to all women as we age. We become invisible and unheard. For women artists, it means our art may become unseen.

Due to age I have changed my definition of success. I may admit I’m not going to be seen, but then I wonder, what is being seen? With every piece of work, professional skills develop. But I don’t know if I am going to be around long enough for it to make an impact or a difference in how the language of my work speaks.

Each painting is about how I see and feel the individual. There is a detailed story in each person that I have sought to portray in the paintings. We are artists whose skills in our trades are highly developed. I think in each of us there is the abundance of artistic value that quite often is overlooked. It isn’t strangers in these paintings, and portraying their completeness requires looking inside and seeing the individual. Mature women create mature art, and it needs to be revered.

Now, success is to keep insisting that the work be seen. It isn’t strangers in the mirror with you. It isn’t strangers in these paintings. I, at this stage in my life can only continue to insist that what I and these women in this show do is artistically essential. This is me saying I see you, let us revere each other and shout, loudly, we are here!