Top of the Phoenix (View from Studio4Ward)

Browse Collection

Year Created

2023

Year Acquired

2023

Keywords

Women

Surfaces

Canvas

Cultures

Canadian

Art Forms

Painting

by: Dawn Steeves

Top of the Phoenix (View from Studio4Ward)

The oil-painted rendering of this iconic structure possesses a natural combination of color compliments. The subtle beauty of the architecture is pronounced by the definitive angles of the composition; a dance between straight angles and soft curves is offset by a bath of soothing sky, keeping the eye lingering.

Snow gently rests on the slanted hips of the roof giving a feeling of a calm moment of winter weather. The illuminated rusty hues of the vibrant red-orange bricks radiate the warmth and is ignited by the sun's rise. The militant gunmetal green of the annex building ties the whole flow of hot and cold together. Special attention was given to the clouds and all things in the distance. A sense of frigid humidity can be seen in the dramatics of light play.

Top of the Phoenix (View from Studio4Ward) is the scene overlooking the upper portion of the Old Phoenix (Gleaner Building) on Queen Street in Fredericton. The scene is captured from the third-floor studio in the Old Arts Building across the street. This is a familiar scene for the Fredericton artists who have made Studio4Ward their creative home throughout the years, still enjoyed by the artists and makers who occupy the space today.

Dawn Steeves

Dawn Steeves (she, her) who lives and works in downtown Fredericton, is a visual artist who works primarily in oil paint, ink. and charcoal. Her subjects include portraiture and the figure, architecture and still life, which she renders in a minimal palette, using the materiality of the medium to communicate through an uncommon visual language.

Dawn is the recipient of three creation, and one career development grant from the New Brunswick arts board, ArtsNB. Her work is included in numerous corporate and private collections, including the New Brunswick Provincial art bank, CollectionArtNB.

Dawn has had the honour of being hosted as Artist in Residence at Kingsbrae International Residency for the Arts (KIRA) in St. Andrews, NB, and at the Bruno Bobak Artist Residency at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Her work has been shown publicly in numerous group and solo exhibitions across the province and in Nova Scotia, most recently a solo exhibition at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.