Watercolour artist Bianca Perren draws her inspiration from landscapes that are bleak, harsh and spare, such as the Arctic and Southern Georgian Bay.
So, what is she doing in Creemore?
“I found it hard to paint here because it’s so pretty,” admits Bianca, who came to Creemore with her son Leo Wolfe in July 2012. “It’s so lush, green and rolling. The landscape is the opposite of the Arctic in a way.”
However, after driving around the area, Bianca soon found inspiration in the form of industrial and outbuildings. The result of this – the work she produced last winter – will be on show at Curiosity House Books from Saturday, February 1 to Thursday, February 27.
“The buildings have such colourful abstract qualities, especially in the snow,” says Bianca. “This show is an exploration of things that are not traditionally pretty; things like industrial buildings that are beautiful in a different way.”
For Bianca, who is originally from Toronto but has lived in Edmonton, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Italy, France, Denmark and Norway, painting the landscape around her has always helped her get to know her environs.
“One of the things I totally love about Creemore is that if you walk up a hill anywhere you get a daily thrill – a view of the expanse of Georgian Bay that is blue and grey in the distance, which I really love.”
To sate her love for stark landscapes – as well as to pursue her work as a paleoecologist who studies the way Arctic landscapes respond to climate change – Bianca has travelled to Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, Greenland, Svalbard in the Norwegian High Arctic and Iceland with both her scientist and artist hats on (which helps because it can be so chilly).
Recently, Bianca returned from a 14-day trip aboard a ship to the Antarctic Peninsula teaching climate change science and art to about 79 teenagers. The voyage was part of an international, Canadian-run program called Students on Ice, which takes high school-aged youth to the Arctic and Antarctic to teach them about polar conservation and environmental issues. This was Bianca’s second time working with the group and she hopes to do more trips with the organization.
But before then, Bianca will embark on another journey. At the end of March, she and Leo will leave for the U.K. where she will work with the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge.
“We are looking forward to the chance to do more travel,” says Bianca. “Leo is very interested in world geography. But we are going to miss all of our amazing friends and the fantastic sense of community here. We will also miss real winter with skiing and hockey! And probably sunny skies….”
Bianca plans to be in the U.K. for the next three years.
But will we find her back in Creemore?
Without hesitating, Bianca says, “yes.”