The Charlotte Street Arts Centre Unveils its Newest Exhibit

September 21st marks the opening of the newest exhibit at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, the City of Fredericton’s Artist in Residence Exhibit.

The City of Fredericton chose 10 artists to complete a residency at either the Fredericton Botanical Garden or Killarney Lake Park. The artists were to attempt to portray the beautiful scenery in their own style of art. Some of the art styles used were music and dance, abstract painting, contemporary illustration, and even weaving. 

One of the artists selected was Nicholas Walsh. Originally from the Saint John area, he has lived in Fredericton for the last four years. He’s always loved creating art and has made that his career path having a background in video game development, going through the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, and now creating art for his own shop Red Leaf Art. 

Walsh used the Fredericton Botanical Garden as inspiration for his pieces of art. 

“I went into it with an open mind allowing myself to kind of just create with the inspiration I found in the park each day. So, a lot of my mornings were spent warming up sketching my environment, and then allowing my brain to kind of percolate ideas,” said Walsh

Nicholas Walsh’s created using the style of Contemporary illustration. He created seven pieces of art combining the beauty of the garden along with his love of fantasy worlds. 

“I’ve always had an exorbitant imagination, my imagination has always been crazy and it’s always leaned into the fantasy realm,” said Walsh

Another artist selected by the City of Fredericton was Alison Veino. 

Veino is an artist currently residing in Fredericton. She graduated from St. Thomas University with a fine arts degree and has also graduated from the CATAPULT artist accelerator program. She started with her signature abstract art while doing an interior design course and hasn’t looked back since now having her own art studio. 

She also completed her residency at the Fredricton Botanical Garden. 

“I was in that final pocket of time in the summer where all of the flowers and the blooms and so there’s also some streams in the Fredericton Botanic Garden, and so there’s streams and so I was trying to capture that intense moment,” said Veino.

Both of these artists used the Fredericton Botanical Garden as inspiration for their pieces but ended up with vastly different finished products due to their distinct styles. This makes it very exciting to see what the next interpretation of the gardens will be.