Sanctuary

Amy Stewart’s Sanctuary series concentrates on the wonder of observing our immediate surroundings—the objects and landmarks in our homes and neighbourhoods that so often escape our attention.

In the midst of a global pandemic, it’s easy to get swept up in chaos, to get tangled in old and new worries, to fear for our families and futures. Stewart has coped with anxiety before and, after the onset of the pandemic, she sought ways to prevent herself from being overcome by those feelings again. 

For Stewart, painting has a meditative quality, allowing her to find a sense of stillness and peace. The light, soft colours and the rounded, smooth lines of her canvases express a shift in her focus to simple things that provide happiness. On walks to and from her studio, she discovers aspects of her own surroundings that had always been there but that she had never recognized. By slowing down and taking stock of her environment, her vision clears, and she can take in those small parts of the world that remain unaffected by turmoil—scents escaping from neighbours’ windows, an old arbutus tree she’d never noticed, newborn goslings huddled around their mother.

The disorientation of our current times makes it all the more important to contemplate simple acts and small pleasures. By turning inward, Stewart creates tangible expressions of the calm that we can find in the ordinary spaces we look upon every day.