En Plein Air Competition 2024

My plein-air painting captures the quiet beauty of nature, focusing on light filtering through trees and the hidden life within the forest. I immersed myself in the landscape by working outdoors, allowing its rhythms, textures, and atmosphere to shape my process. This piece reflects my ongoing exploration of nature’s resilience and the serenity of untamed, wild spaces. Through the delicate interplay of light and shadow, I aim to evoke a moment of stillness—inviting the viewer to connect with the peaceful yet powerful presence of the natural world.

This artists light strokes and the colour palette is so refined, but it also depicts a rich luminous quality. It offers a softness to the eyes and captures what this cafe and village looks like on a daily basis.

– Cinzia Recine, BIA member

‘Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time’ – Thomas Morton

It’s my belief that sincerely exploring the threads that hold an individual connects the artist to the path of the universal.

Michelle Chen is a member of the Oil Painters of America and Figurative Expressions. I was learning painting at thirteen years old, in my teenage years, I was always drawing, painting had been part of my life. After graduating from Nanjing Art University, I devoted myself to the applied arts as a professional graphic designer for more than ten years.

In recent years, I am working as a full-time fine artist and art instructor. My passion for painting touches a broad range of subject matter which include the figure, portraits, still life, and landscapes. My optimistic attitude means that bright and bold colors play a dominant role in my work.

Walking around Kleinburg I was fascinated with the intersection of the highway and the Humber River. The highway disappears through the trees, but the sign stands through them, green in tone, like a modern tree in a forest of development. Telephone poles dance with the trees, blurring the lines between the natural and built environment. The detail of the infrastructure, contrasting with the landscape’s loose brushwork, hints at the village hidden behind the trees. With vibrant brushstrokes and an underpainting that bleeds through and divides the sky, the artwork reflects how we navigate and coexist with our surroundings.

I fly here and there collecting sweet nectar. I share the gift of pollen with my friends. I am hard-wired to help in a world that harms. I am here to serve the people that have poisoned my kind. I am the most beautiful monster in this garden. My name is Apis Metallicum: Series 5000, and I am your vanishing saviour.

This drawing explores the intersection of nature and human intervention. At its center is an en plein air sketch from within a gazebo at the McMichael on a rainy day, offering a controlled glimpse of the landscape framed by human presence. Two sparrows perch on the hand-drawn frame, symbolizing nature relegated to the role of spectator. Once integral parts of the ecosystem, the birds here observe from the margins, highlighting how urbanization and human design increasingly dominate natural habitats. The sparrows are becoming passive observers of spaces that were once their own.

Maintaining a balance between preserving the natural environment and economic growth is a challenge that must be addressed before it is too late to turn back. Development is inevitable but not at any cost. Let us not turn our forests to ash and oceans to floating waste. The world is sacred and we are but one small element of this world, let us protect it.