Celebrating 50 Years: Woodstock Art Gallery Presents 50 Works over 50 Weeks

Bernice Vincent, from Woodstock, Ontario, attended H.B Beal secondary school and the Instituto Allende in Mexico, and became one of the few women operating in the art scene in London, Ontario during her time. In the 1960’s she moved away from abstraction, towards representational art. Vincent began to paint that which she was surrounded by, resulting in many domestic scenes and landscapes. She did not favor working from photographs; rather, she would paint a piece multiple times, enjoying the different outcomes that were produced at different times. The featured work, Junction, displays the view of the Thames River from the restaurant at Museum London. Vincent plays with the angles of the Queens Avenue Bridge, and the manmade surroundings; all of which are offset by the vibrant natural environment of the trees and river. There is a heightened sense of realism in Vincent’s paintings that bring a sense of truth into her works.