This month at Melt Studio and Gallery (located at historic Base 31), Kahèhtoktha Janice Brant’s “Forest Gifts” are on display in the Format Gallery.
“Forest Gifts” is a Kanyenke’ha’ka (Mohawk) and Annishinabe collaboration of honouring and expressing their relationship with the Tree Nations and their many gifts and generosity to us as human beings. This exhibit involved the construction of the log mortars and pestles (crafted from donated local sources), and creating stamps to print the log-rings using Walnut Ink. This results in stunning log ring prints that will make you consider your relationship with nature in a way like none other.
Janice Brant Kahèhtoktha is Kanyanke’ha’ka from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario, Canada. She sits with the Bear Clan and carries on her family heritage as a dedicated farmer. She is an artist, scholar, educator, and author of Rotinonhsyon:ni language and culture. An actionist for sacred-ecology and seed conservation, she helped to found Ratinenhayenthos “they are farmers of the seed” and the Kenhte:ke Seed Sanctuary & Learning Centre (KSSLC), host to a living seed collection.
On National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30, 2023) Melt Studio Gallery will also display Janice Brant Kahèhtoktha’s piece Lateral Kindness.
Janice Brant Kahèhtoktha’s “Forest Gifts” are displayed at Melt Gallery from September 16- October 8th. There will be an opening reception Sept. 23 7-9 pm open to the public, happening at Melt Gallery (located at Base 31). Melt Studio Gallery is located at Base 31 in Picton and is open to the public Thursdays through Sundays, 11-5.

In this group show we examine places that inspire artists. Places real or imagined. Some are simply a glimpse – a moment in time that existed, and then gone. Others are more permanent – a home, a view from a window or a building passed by. Some are places discovered in the beauty of nature. And still others are places that never really existed at all.

Yet each place offers inspiration, comfort, or memory for the artist.

And recognition and connection within the viewer.

\ FALL INTO PLACE features the work of five unique and varied artists – Martine Côté, Laurie Gruer, Tony Luciani, Sarah Kernohan & John Visser.

Discover each artist’s sense of place in the gallery or online at 2gallery.ca

The Paintings of John Gregg is an event within Melt’s Focus gallery. John Gregg is a graduate of the Royal West of England College of Art. His work is equally balanced between portraiture and landscape, and sometimes a combination of both. It falls broadly between expressionism and impressionism.
Painters that have influenced his work include: Kokoschka, Degas, the post-impressionists, as well as British schools of painting indicative of the work of Sutherland, Augustus John, Eardley, Freud, and others of that period.
He works mainly from sketches, water colour notes and photographs for landscapes and model sketches for portraiture.
John Gregg perceives a painting as a crystallization of mood, time, and space.

“The Rocking Horse Winner” is Howard Goldberg’s endeavor to capture the dreamscapes of his childhood memories, a time Goldberg describes as a period he ”spent a good deal of time in cowboy boots and pajamas, riding a rocking horse while listening to Allan Sherman records and dreaming of real horses, ranches, sheep, nuclear war, the-girl-next-door and more.” Having recently discovered the power of using artificial intelligence (AI) in his work, Goldberg was able to bring his childhood memories to life in a way unlike ever before. This show exhibits 21 renderings of Goldberg’s adventures into AI demonstrating his rich childhood memories. Though this show is highly personal, Goldberg’s show will certainly generate nostalgia for the gallery goer.

“Little Red” by Susan Wallis and Leisa Rich takes the viewer through a beloved fairy tale that has immense meaning to both artists from a young age. Susan Wallis, renowned encaustic painter and artist/curator of Melt Studio Gallery sees the image of Little Red as the reminder that when you live a full life, you’re certain to also encounter wolves (and challenges) as you go. Her series of paintings demonstrate the evolution of Little Red from little girl to woman, splashed across Wallis’ beloved Canadian landscape. Wallis says “ I see my Little Red as a celebration of experience and grace…..the one who has triumphed over both her internal and external wolves.” Renowned textile and multimedia artist Leisa Rich shows her own vision of Little Red, challenging the classic tale’s reminder to ‘always behave’’ by having her Little Red continually switch roles and “misbehave,’ a bold and feminist take on a renowned classic. Rich describes her Little Red as “ a reflection of strength, power, and independence, unwilling to acquiesce for anyone, and when her back is to the wall, she is an avenger who will defend herself.”