Gillian Marston — Don’t Fence Me In

Gillian Marston — Don’t Fence Me In - theHumm May 2023

By Sally Hansen

Art… and Soul

Her paintings and her photography are as wide-ranging as her interests, her travels and her accomplishments. Marston is open to life, to new experiences and new challenges. This intrepid retiree has reinvented herself as an accomplished acrylics painter and fine art photographer. As she puts it, “Art is a way to explore all of the creative ideas that occur to me. For me art is like travel — I love change; I love exploring and trying new things.”

An avid photographer since the age of twenty-one, she has embraced the challenge of using her images as her artistic medium of choice to explore her creativity and further her conceptual ideas. Using a wide variety of post-processing techniques, Gilly transforms her photos of beautiful landscapes and familiar objects into portraits that look like they have been painted on canvas, or captured in an alternate universe. Her inventive renditions of a broken-down Yukon truck or a Labrador fishing boat or a pattern in the branches of a tree seduce the viewer to experience familiar objects with new eyes.

The endless possibilities afforded by infinitely flexible software options, coupled with current camera gear, continue to inspire her to explore a wide variety of her favourite subjects in new ways. During the social isolation of Covid she found herself examining abstractions in nature, looking at patterns in the leaves, reflections in water, and creating new compositions in original ways. She describes them as “Nature’s patterns abstracted in layers of texture.” Her striking photographic portrait of a “Chickadee in Winter” is a tribute to the lasting influence of her mother’s passion as a birder and naturalist.

Gilly’s celebratory acrylic paintings are a testament to her enduring love of nature and the sea. Her latest paintings comprise two series: her North West series focuses on travel in the western prairies, mountains and Alaska; and her Tide’s Out series depicts a close-up view of Maritime and Maine seashore life. The signature piece in this series is a colourful four-panel tribute to Rachel Carson, author in 1962 of Silent Spring, and who is widely credited with initiating the contemporary environmental movement.

Marston’s home in Beckwith Township is in a forested area with a large vibrant marsh, providing her with a convenient and reliable source of inspiration, but she ventures far afield for more exotic material. She has just returned from Tanzania — her latest jaunt with her equally adventurous spouse of twenty years, Suzanne Deschênes. Years ago the couple flew to the Pribilof Islands off the coast of Alaska to see pelagic birds. They sought out different species on a catamaran amid the seven Dry Tortugas islands, the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys.

Since retirement they have taken many months-long trips with their cats in their motorhome, visiting natural areas for hiking, birding and photography and to indulge their love of deserts and rugged landscapes. They often seek out windswept geological formations in the southwest U. S., including the popular Utah rock formations, the Chiricahua Mountain “sky island” hoodoos and balancing rocks in southern Arizona, and “little gems like Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico”. Their motorhome is, of course, equipped with a compact studio.

An Appetite for Adventure

The daughter of a serviceman, Gillian was born in Brandon, Manitoba, and her adventures started when she was just six months old. Her dad was posted to Kingston until she was seven years old, then the family moved to Ghana for two years, back to Ottawa, then to England during her teens, and finally back to Ottawa. She credits her parents with her appetite for travel and her love of new experiences. When her mother became an avid birder and blossomed into an amazing naturalist, Gilly joined in.

Despite loving art and photography, she never envisioned herself as an artist. She excelled at university and went on to a career in finance and accounting, and later worked as an IT technician and network engineer. She didn’t really notice the lack of a creative outlet in her life until her membership with the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club resulted in her accepting responsibility for designing a publication for the organization. She became Chair of their Education and Publicity Committee and ended up creating a big display for an Ottawa show to celebrate Earth Day — “Because I had a truck to transport the displays,” she quips modestly. This led to designing and creating other promotional displays, and her creative side was unleashed.

She decided to learn how to paint and enrolled in painting classes. She received advice from the owner of an art framing business to join an arts organization. She did, and began to go to local art shows, forming supportive friendships at Arts Carleton Place and Manotick Art Association with artist Sandy Armstrong and others. With Sandy’s encouragement, she began painting regularly with local artists. The more she participated, the more she realized that she loved the world of art, and being a member of the artistic community. “Painting is my way to be part of that world; that is what I would miss if I gave it up.”

“Gutsy and Determined Women”

This enterprising go-getter is now in the process of establishing a not-for-profit fine art gallery for the Carleton Place community. Marston has combined forces with Colleen Gray, Pamela Stewart and Ginny Fobert to create a “community ‘hub’ for local art, art education and creative events”. Their website at cpgallery.ca states: “Our aim is to elevate and support Carleton Place and regional area artists/artisans… by providing them with affordable and accessible gallery, studio, workshop and meeting space, and by helping them to sell their work”. This quartet, whom Marston describes as “gutsy and determined women,” bring a combined total of 39 years as professional artists with exhibitions at 45 area shows to the undertaking. The fast-growing community of Carleton Place will benefit in many ways when they secure a suitable location and realize their far-reaching and generous goal.

Arts Carleton Place Fine Art Show

On May 6 and 7 you can drop in at the Carleton Place Arena at 75 Neelin Street from 10am to 4:30pm and enjoy Gilly Marston’s inventive fine art photography and her heartwarming acrylic tributes to the natural world she values so much. Please refer to the back of her Artist Trading Card for a full set of her coordinates.

Artist Trading Card