Hall family makes art a business
Choosing art as a primary career is not the traditional path for most artists but for the Hall family it’s all they have ever known.
The Halls have gained a reputation as one of Alberta’s most accomplished art families. John and Joice along with their children Janine and Jarvis have all made their mark on Alberta’s art community. They are collectively bringing their work together for the first time ever during the Art Gallery of Calgary’s latest exhibit Traditions Illuminated: Celebrating the Halls.
“We were very surprised by the interest and hope the community finds the exhibition an interesting and exciting idea” says Joice who paints. “I’m looking forward to walking through the installation to see the connections that run through the individual works in the exhibition. Although I have exhibited with John before I have never had the opportunity to exhibit with Janine or Jarvis.”
John and Janine also focus on painting and while the work of all three concentrates on representational imagery their individual styles are unique.
“What we each do through our art is manifest a respect and admiration for the rich history of western painting as we interpret and discover new variations on the familiar forms of landscape portraiture still life and framing ” says John whose 50-year career includes teaching at the Alberta College of Art and Design the University of Calgary and Ohio Wesleyan University.
Joice works with oil paint to create stunning yet unconventional landscapes inspired by her surroundings throughout her 45-year career. These range from the vast deserts of Mexico to the ever multi-faceted terrain of the United States and Canada to her current residence in lush Okanagan.
Janine portrays realism through portraiture and figure studies. She favours oil and her work is a stunning collection of surreal and conventional styles.
John describes his work as a dialogue with the history of western painting. His work has a strong focus on approximating the way light defines form texture surfaces and materials. For this exhibit his work is a deliciously realistic concoction of acrylic paintings focusing on his current interest in candies chocolates and doughnuts.
“I have always taken delight in focusing on unexpected unusual atypical and uncommon subjects” he says.
“I think our focuses are all different but the actual paintings will have a lot of the same visual vocabularies in them” says Janine who gravitated towards painting during her late teens.
Jarvis has been following his passion for frame making during the past 20 years creating beautifully handcrafted gilded masterpieces which are works of art in their own right. His artistic endeavours over the years also include live theatre and acting.
“I have no doubt Jarvis could be a very good painter if he chose that interest one day” says Joice fondly remembering a watercolour painting he once gave her.
Janine believes artistic talent runs in families crediting her parents’ high level of discipline and impeccable standards for her ability to look critically at her own practice.
“They normalized the whole art world and the artmaking process. It didn’t seem odd or out there at all” says Janine of her artistic upbringing. “To us it was normal because it was really all that we knew. For a lot of families it seems like a far-out thing to do but when you’re growing up with it I think the children of artists see it as a really interesting and a rich kind of way to grow up.”
Joice says she doesn’t see any challenges presented by her entire family being immersed in art only positives. It promotes lively discussions between the group and they are able to share their experiences with one another.
John agrees with his wife’s views.“Any challenges are easily overshadowed by the obvious joy we derive from our shared interest in art.”
