European dreams

After attending fine arts school at the Venice Summer School program (through Queen’s University), amongst the rolling northern Italian countryside, Tammy Shane had settled back into her life in Kingston as an illustrator and artist. “But I recently started flipping through some pictures,” she explains. “And I thought ‘Wow, I should definitely use this. I should take advantage of my trip.’”

The result is Shane’s most recent body of work, a series of Cypress-strewn Italian landscapes, Renaissance chandeliers and Venetian lampposts on exhibit at Orléans’ Frameworks Gallery on St. Joseph Boulevard. Entitled “Visions of Tuscany”, the exhibit runs Feb. 2 – Mar. 15 and, last Saturday, was kicked off in style with a three-hour vernissage at the gallery.

New works by Alexandra Chowaniec, David Merritt, Richard Tippins, and Kaye Wong are also on display.

Shane, who’s been a professional artist for two years, says this latest assortment is the most mature and seasoned of her portfolio. Describing her work as “Fairly whimsical,” she often overlays sweeping landscape scenes atop finely-quilled artistic handwriting – a unique style she’s worked to perfect in her recent pieces. “I use a lot of lace and stenciling (in the background), and it looks like you’re peeling back layers of wallpaper when you see it,” adds Shane, who’s Orléans connections are distant, but strong – after attending downtown Ottawa’s annual Art in the Park event at Strathcona Park last year, she and Frameworks boss Edward Barr got to talking, she explains.

He enjoyed her work so much, he had to invite her back. “And we’ve already been getting great feedback on her work,” says Barr. “We got her first assortment a few weeks ago, and hung some last week - and it’s already sold.”

But Shane isn’t just a fine artist- she’s also a professional illustrator, having done work for various publishing and media companies. “You never know what you’re getting into – one week, you’re doing a book cover for wedding cakes, and the next you’re doing something for a medical journal,” she says.

www.tammyshane.com