June 19 - August 30

Chasing Light along the Bruce Trail

Anna Kutishcheva

My painting practice is rooted in a lifelong fascination with the natural world and the relationship between form, light, and movement. Rather than documenting a landscape, I aim to translate its atmosphere, memory, and sensory experience into paint, preserving its vitality on a flat surface.

The primary inspiration for my work is Ontario’s Bruce Trail, a landscape of forests, meadows, and limestone escarpments. Through walking and observation, I am drawn to the shifting light, textures, and rhythms of the land, as well as the ways people carry these places in memory. In collaboration with the Bruce Trail Conservancy, I created paintings based on personal stories and experiences shared by trail users.

My process begins with close observation and an exploration of colour, shape, value, and rhythm. After developing a composition and palette, I establish the painting with a loose underpainting that captures the mood of the scene, gradually building layers while maintaining a sense of freshness and spontaneity.

My goal is to create luminous, immersive paintings that invite viewers to re-experience nature as both a physical place and an emotional landscape.