Frances Baskerville

Frances is a graduate of English Language and Literature at the University of Toronto and has a Masters degree from the University of Western Ontario. After careers in education, librarianship and public service management, she entered the Victoria College of Art and is now a full time practicing artist.

Since graduation her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and juried shows – Arthur Leggett Fine Art in Toronto, THEWORKS festival of Art in Edmonton, the Attic Gallery in Portland, the New West Gallery in Sidney, the Campbell River Art Gallery, and in several locations in Victoria and the lower mainland including the BC Festival of the Arts, Fran Willis Gallery, Martin Batchelor Gallery, May Ip-Lam Gallery, Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria, the Maltwood Gallery at the University of Victoria, the Sooke and Sidney Fine Art Shows and the Maple Ridge, Burnaby and Port Moody art galleries. In 2004 the City of Victoria commissioned her to paint a 10 foot square mural as part of a city beautification project. She is a recent recipient of the Herbert Siebner Practicing Artist Award.

Artist Statement

I paint the figure because I am fascinated by human energy. Whether it takes the form of physical movement, as in dance or sport, or the form of emotional or spiritual intensity, I try to capture particular moments. I am interested in the ways people experience imprisonment and liberation. As a student of literature, I identify with Virginia Woolf’s concept of reality…that is, that life is very much about struggle – with brief moments of harmony and peace. My figures are striving…often for something they cannot reach or can reach only momentarily. I try to reflect this energy in my canvases. Figures both inhabit and struggle against their surrounding space. The resulting tension is reflected in textured surfaces and the play of light and dark. Canvas fragments, collaged elements, threads and raw edges help express fragility and precariousness. As Leonard Cohen sings, “everything has a crack in it…that is how the light gets in.”