"A Day in the Garden" looks ahead to spring

Mar 24, 2011

Photo: Louise Day and her work

Lovers of spring and all that it brings still have a chance to take in Verona photographer Louise Day's first official public gallery showing, which opened on March 5 and will be up until Saturday March 26 at Kingston Frameworks, located at 198 Princess St.

Day, who moved to Verona in 1963 where she worked with her husband in his family medical practice for 37 years, came to photography rather late in life. These days she loves nothing more than wandering through a garden armed with her digital camera looking to capture the colour and contours of the beauty that grows there.

Day’s photos strive to capture not only the vivid and intense colours of tulips, roses, irises, and dogwood as they exist in natural garden settings, but also aim to celebrate their intricate and subtle designs. She does so by highlighting their minute details using the natural light that engulfs them and, in doing so, often makes them appear to glow from within.

One such photo titled “Side by Side Tulips” does exactly that and it is no wonder that photos like these won her first prize in Equinox magazine’s 1992 photo contest in the category “In Praise of Plants". Visitors to this show will appreciate both the rich colour and careful composition of her works. “People are liking what they see and showing me that they too are hungry for our blooms again.”

Day learned photography from friend and neighbour, artist Kim Ondaatje, who she says taught her “how to see” and most of the photos in the show were taken at Ondaatje’s Blueroof Farm in Bellrock. Day has held three exhibitions to date at Blueroof but this is her first show in a private gallery.

Day has long been an avid gardener, following in her father’s footsteps. Though she never formally studied art, her mother painted water colours and taught her how the “careful framing of an image can tend to make or break what lies within it.”

Donna Rutherford who curated and framed the show puts Day’s images into the category of photo paintings and compares them to the paintings of Georgia O'Keefe and the ceramics of Judy Chicago. “Day’s images possess a wonderful lightness and airiness and a goodness that takes them beyond the photograph and to a more spiritual level. Day has the rare ability to capture that very special moment where all of a flower’s best qualities are revealed.”

Donna's expertise in framing also helps to set off the images. Framed solely in white, the frames include curving fluted edges that mimic the contours of petals. Others imitate garden trellises, which perfectly suit Day's roses.

The works succeed on a number of levels and hearken to the wonders that spring will soon bring. Day is counting down the days to when she will be back at Blueroof to photograph the over 800 new tulips that her friend Kim planted last fall. She is planning another exhibition at Blueroof Farm in May.