AGH exhibit evokes childhood summers

Elizabeth Lennie’s Story and Stardust collection, on display until Aug. 2, is a colourful, nostalgic trip down memory lane. 

In a room behind the Art Gallery of Hamilton gift shop, brightly coloured paintings invoking childhood memories of warm days on northern lakes are lined up around the room. Described as nostalgic by gallery staff, Elizabeth Lennie’s Story and Stardust collection is a depiction of childhood summers seen through memory. 

“I want them to see themselves in the images. When I paint images, what I'm doing is I'm painting a real or an imagined memory of childhood and adulthood. But none of my characters are that specific. So if you see yourself in one of those images, that is what I hope to accomplish,” Lennie said in an interview with HAMILTON CITY Magazine.

The paintings on exhibit showcase brightly coloured swimmers in northern Ontario lakes from the artist’s Rabbit Lake and The Raft series. They are snapshots of childhood “suspended in time,” Lennie’s author biography reads. Her work widely focuses on water in different forms, from lakes, underwater scenes, and pools. 

On her website, Lennie describes her work as “the memory myth of summer.” This is a theme the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s art sales and services department team also recognized. 

Devon Martin, art consultant of the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s art sales and services department says, “Elizabeth Lennie’s work really resonates across generations. Everybody can relate to swimming in the lake, visiting the cottage, if you're lucky enough, and skating. Her work is really universal and profoundly personal… And we're so taken by Elizabeth that we were thrilled that she wanted to do a show with us.”

The show runs until Aug 2.

Lennie’s work is featured on the covers of Carley Fortune’s books. Her novel, Every Summer After, was a shortlist contender for CBC’s 2024 Canada Reads.

Lennie says her professional artist career began in 2009, and took off during the pandemic. While she has since downsized back to her attic studio, she continues to paint for galleries such as the Art Gallery of Hamilton.

The origin of the lake paintings can be pinpointed to 2004. While flipping through a binder, she found photos from an August 2002 Rabbit Lake cottage weekend that had been tucked away. After reviewing them, Lennie realized one of her children’s friends photographed in the image had been diagnosed with cancer later that year. She said “the fragility of life” had “hit [her] like a ton of bricks.”

This led her to paint the image of the kids on the log. This has adapted and changed to the raft and other water-related paintings over the years. While some paintings are pulled directly from photographs, Lennie says she does “a lot of collaging in [her] imagination,” of locations and scenarios. 

Lennie hopes her work will speak to viewers. She referenced a concept from The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, a novel about a stolen painting and the power of art. “If a painting speaks to one person, then that painting has significance. And that's what I'm hoping with my work, that the paintings will say, ‘You, I was painted for you,’” she said. 

Lennie’s exhibit is featured in the art sales and services department, which is separate from the exhibits run in the wider gallery. The department represents between 70 and 75 artists in Ontario and has put on quarterly solo shows for artists since 2024. Many artists are local to Hamilton, but they also represent wider Ontario artists such as Lennie, who is Toronto-based. 

The Lennie exhibit is free and open to the public during gallery hours. Guests who wish to check out the rest of the gallery must buy a ticket. Admission to the gallery is free on Thursdays. 

Martin said the pieces put on display are for sale. The department focuses on catering both to the artist and the buyer, and are flexible about paintings leaving the exhibit early to go to a personal collection, or remaining for viewing until the exhibit closes.

Martin says the department encourages artists to answer the December call for submissions to the AGH’s April art sale. There is no application fee. Artists are given feedback on their application, and successful candidates will be included in the event. 

Revenue from the sale of art during the year-round art sale exhibits and the annual art sale in April is split 50/50 between the artist and the gallery.