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Goderich artist is guest at Victoria Park Gallery By Liz Dadson |
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 Madeleine Roske of Goderich displays some of her artwork | ||||
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Madeleine Roske's art is bold and fearless, or subdued and traditional, depending on her subject and her mood. The Goderich artist is featured in the guest gallery at the Victoria Park Gallery in Kincardine throughout the month of October. "I am not wedded to any particular medium," she says. "I use oils, acrylics less often, pastels for portraits, watercolours and acrylic inks for fun and to experience the flow, and enjoy dabbling in acrylic gels for abstract expression." Roske doesn't like to be pigeon-holed into a particular style either, ranging from impressionist to traditional to abstract to whimsy, in order to breathe life into her work. "I paint with the intention of sharing the exuberance, complexity, humour and abundance of the world around me," she says. "My method is to paint with directness and yet try to retain the intangible quality that attracts my mind's eye." One of her more painful and emotional pieces stemmed from the stock market crash in 2008. It depicts an old body with a young person's head, and a young body with an old person's head, to show the struggle between greed and caution on the money markets. Roske paints some of her pieces on location, while for others, she will take a photo or do a few sketches and then paint in her studio. For example, her painting of cows was taken from photographs so that she would capture the intricate anatomy of the animals. In many cases, weather conditions and the medium used, dictate whether she can complete her work outdoors. Roske says her early experiences of "shifts" between countries, religions and cultures, contributed to her education as much as school, and have left a profound effect on her life. These shifts have enabled her to deal with change and ambiguity.
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She also remembers doing a lot of painting and drawing as a child.
Arriving in Goderich in 1976, she began to paint in order to express the joy she feels in nature and her responsiveness to the natural world. "Huron County provides an inexhaustible source of material and it is my privilege to record it," she says. She joined the Goderich Art Club in 1985 and took courses at the Southampton Art School. She attended a university program on art therapy in 1989, and took a lot of vivid arts studies. These pushed her to totally deconstruct all her mainstream ideas and then reconstruct them and focus on different media. "Acrylic gel is a lot of fun to play with," she says. Roske's paintings can be found in Canada, the United States, Germany, Hong Kong and several other locations. "I am particularly proud of the fact that, presently, five of my paintings are part of the permanent collection of the Huron County Art Bank," she says. "I participated in a two-person show at the Bainton Gallery in Blyth in July, 2007, and I remain an active member of the Goderich Co-op Gallery.
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