In the Station House’s Main Gallery for the months of February and March, the majesty of the natural world is on full display in Our Beautiful Resilient Planet.
These colourful acrylic paintings are something of a passion project for Lynn Capling a retired teacher of five years now who has taken her retirement as an opportunity to travel the world and start painting what she sees in it. As she did, Capling developed a desire to do an art show that was about the Earth and demonstrated the fragility of its ecosystems.
As such, her works consist of scenes of nature, the people who live in them and a few politically inspired pieces, like a painting of the Notre Dame Cathedral on Fire with its stain glass windows replaced by planet earth.
Capling remembers how much money was donated to it and how people said “we will rebuild, we will rebuild” but when she looks at the state of some of the forests of the world, she feels that money could be used for other things.
One of the pieces that means the most to her is one she did of Earth as seen from the moon as she said that astronauts who witness that view say it changes them profoundly. Capling said, with emotion, it’s almost a spiritual experience to realize how beautiful the world is and while that’s hard to capture in a painting, she tried all the same.
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The places her paintings come from include Uganda, Peru, Argentina, B.C. and a few from Antarctica, although that trip was cut short when their cruise ship was turned around halfway there. As such, Capling based her breathtaking Antarctica pieces on photos a friend had given her. Generally, Capling prefers to paint from photos she captures herself while out travelling which is why she found it frustrating while in Africa that many of the “very beautiful” locals wouldn’t allow her to take a photo so she could paint them.
“I really enjoy doing portraits, I find them challenging but really fun,” Capling said. “I’ve done a few whimsical pieces showing carbon dioxide changing into oxygen as it goes through the tree.”
Our Beautiful Resilient Planet was going to be called Our Beautiful Resilient Planet, Our Fragile Ecosystems but Capling said the poster had already been printed by the time she came up with the name. Diversity on the planet is the main theme of the show, Capling said, as she tries to show some of the people, the places and the different ecosystems that populate the planet. She joked she felt sorry for those who had to hang the show as it’s such a diverse group of paintings to arrange.
“It’s all worth it. It’s a beautiful planet full of beautiful things and we should do what we can to protect it,” Capling said.
She encourages the entire community to come out and see the show whenever they have the time.
Our Beautiful Resilient Planet is in the Main Gallery until March. 21, 2020. Per audience request, all Station House shows will be on display for longer this year.
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