About the Artist | Debra Krakow

I am an artist and architect. I grew up in the heart of Montreal but now work out of my Wolfe Island studio, looking out over farmers’ fields and the St. Lawrence Seaway. My paintings express my deeply felt connection to the natural world, seen through the lens of an architect and former urbanite.

I’ve developed my artistic practice through explorations in drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, fibre arts and ceramics. I paint in layers, selectively revealing or obscuring the underpainting to create an evocative surface. Just as a landscape or weathered surface bears hints of its evolution, my painted surfaces reveal a complex history of underlying colour and texture.

The canvases go back and forth from the floor to the easel as they evolve. On the floor I move quickly around the canvas, working from all sides, pouring paint with abandon and moving it around with wide brushes, scrapers and sometimes just my hands. When the work is on the easel I take more time to consider and contemplate, still working intuitively but with greater control.

I think it’s the push and pull between these two ways of working that gives the paintings their energy – that delicate balance between fluidity and structure, softness and vibrancy, transparency and solidity, mystery and clarity.

I am represented by Koyman Galleries in Ottawa and Sybil Frank Gallery in Wellington, Prince Edward County.