The 2025 River Art Show at Arts Hub Brockville

The 2025 River Art Show at Arts Hub Brockville

This June, as majestic tall ships sail into Brockville’s historic harbour, a different kind of beauty will be anchoring just steps away—on the walls of the Arts Hub Brockville gallery. The River Art Show taking place June 21 & 22, 2025, offers a captivating counterpoint to the Tall Ships Festival, showcasing the newest works of 13 exceptional Canadian visual artists, all inspired by the landscapes, waterscapes, nature, and rhythms of the Thousand Islands region and beyond.

Curated by Alissa Sexton, former director of Bau-Xi Gallery and seasoned art consultant, this juried exhibition highlights a compelling cross-section of contemporary Canadian art. From abstraction to realism, oil to watercolour, every piece in the show channels a unique interpretation of the natural world.

A Diverse Chorus of Nature-Inspired Voices

Among the featured artists is Lisa Free, whose minimalist waterscapes evoke serenity through gestural brushwork and subtle, intuitive colour palettes. Her connection to the Thousand Islands region informs a practice that strips away the superfluous to focus on atmosphere and calm.

Monique van Someren, working from her studio inside Arts Hub Brockville, brings a whimsical lens to nature through her “Garden Party” series, turning macro photography of backyard wildlife into playful, narrative-rich oil paintings full of charm and personality.

Bob Shackles, a distinguished member of both the Canadian Society Of Painters In Water Colour (CSPWC) and the Society of Canadian Artists (SCA), contributes technically masterful portraits and landscapes, including a powerful homage to Canadian rowing culture rendered in bold oil strokes—rooted, of course, in the St. Lawrence.

The work of Eda Brown, a painter based in Mallorytown, captures a moment in nature with vibrant colour and looseness. Her expressive landscapes allow viewers to enter a vivid world shaped by both memory and place.

Donna McPhail cleverly anthropomorphizes her bird subjects, transforming male Ruff birds into elegant ladies of fashion. Her floral studies, reminiscent of O’Keeffe’s reverent intimacy, explore beauty in close-up, natural detail.

From Elizabethtown, Pat Markovich channels her engineering mind into dynamic, expressive, oil and alcohol ink paintings that celebrate both travel and the quiet wonder of her Riverside garden. Her work embodies a colourful blend of structure and spontaneity.

Marianne Dicaire, based in Gatineau, offers an explosion of colour and form—her semi-abstract compositions pulse with aquatic and botanical energy, populated by surreal organic life forms that feel both familiar and fantastical.

Stacey Robb brings a scientific eye and a poetic soul to her paintings. A biologist by training, she combines eco-printing, gestural watercolours, and a reverence for the land into visual meditations on Canada’s natural ecosystems.

Brockville-based artist Rachel Legault specializes in luminous oil landscapes, aiming to create peaceful windows into nature. Her goal? To evoke a pause—to let the viewer linger, breathe, and remember the stillness of a perfect moment outdoors.

Rosalyn Insley, now painting full-time from her studio in Athens, is fascinated by the structural elements of nature. Her acrylics seek to convey not just what a landscape looks like, but what it feels like—to kayak across it, to walk through it, to exist within it.

Sarah Lewis, a long-time resident of the Thousand Islands and a fine arts graduate, brings deep sensitivity to the effects of light in her oil paintings. Her works celebrate those fleeting, magical shifts in sky and water that remind us of nature’s grandeur.

Valerie (Spence) Hounsell, based in Odessa, is an award-winning acrylic painter and avid kayaker who captures the raw, rugged beauty of the Canadian Shield. Her realistic renderings of rock formations and waterways reflect a deep familiarity with the wilderness she explores firsthand. An Elected Member of the Society of Canadian Artists, her works have found homes across Canada, the US, and internationally.

Tammy Shane's work speaks of noticing detail. Slowing down and embracing the process of brushes to canvas. The notion of "slow" is carried throughout her work relayed in the fine features of her animals or the soft layering of her clouds. Her work is subtle nod to the natural world we live in and the creatures it inhabits.

A Celebration of Place, Passion, and Perspective

What unites these artists is not a single style or medium, but a shared reverence for nature and the transformative power of landscape and nature. The River Art Show isn’t just about what we see—it’s about how we experience place, memory, and belonging.

Whether you're a collector, a festival-goer, or someone newly discovering the Brockville arts scene, the River Art Show offers a moment of reflection amidst the festival's energy—a space to slow down, to take in the art, and to be reminded of the beauty that surrounds us.

River Art Show

Arts Hub Brockville, 32 Park Street, use King Street entrance
Saturday, June 21: 10 AM – 4 PM
Sunday, June 22: 10 AM – 3 PM
For more info: artshubbrockville.com/river

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