CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — "A Pilgrim’s Passage: Images of the Himalayas & Beyond”, recent artwork by Haley Lewis, will be on display at The Guild art gallery in Charlottetown from June 26 to July 9.
Living and working in China for many years has afforded Haley Lewis the unique opportunity to not only travel throughout that vast country, but also to many neighbouring countries.
“A Pilgrim’s Passage” is what she describes as a small glimpse into some of those places through a series of new paintings.
Of the Asian countries that Lewis spent time in, she was especially drawn to Mongolia, Burma, Nepal and northern India.
“Although things are slowly changing, what I found there were cultures so remote that the people have been able to maintain their traditional religious and cultural practices, for the most part unhindered by the influences of the west,” Lewis says.
Since Buddhism is a practice so interwoven into the daily lives of the people in these isolated locales, her work naturally began to flow in this direction too.
“There is a reverence that overcomes you in these ancient 1000-year-old monasteries; places steeped in ritual and mysticism, which are often in high altitudes amid dramatic landscapes. It is not hard to feel inspired by the silence, mystery and sheer beauty that surrounds you in a place like Ladakh.”
Lewis’ recent body of work consists predominantly of acrylic paintings some of which are very colourful while others take on the more subdued tones which she feels reflect the isolation and majesty of the places she experienced.
