The Country 10km

Title: The Country 10km
Author: Dennis Kalichuk
Media: Limited edition reproduction print on acid free paper
Size: 18.25 x 23.75 inches

Biography of the Artist - Born Brantford, Ontario, May 21, 1956. Studied Advertising Art/Design at Mohawk College, Hamilton. First full-time job as a graphic artist and later art director for a design/print firm in Paris, Ontario. After moving to London, Ontario, and putting in a stint as a writer/producer at CBC affiliate CFPL-TV, Dennis returned to painting. He later opened and operated a gallery from 1987 to 1992 that showcased paintings and sculpture of local and regional artists. The gallery was closed to devote more time and energy to painting and sculpting. Dennis is a multi-media artist who tends to work in series. He has completed a series of bold watercolour paintings that tried to capture the sensation of movement of birds and animals. "To accomplish this I used colours and abstracted backgrounds, merged with the subject, of what I imagined to be the aura of energy created by the moving bird or animal," he states. That series comprises over 200 paintings. More recently the artist has been focused on a series of simplified and stylized landscapes. Preferring to work from memory or field sketches, the elements in the scenes are depicted as simple, pure shapes. Kalichuk's work also includes semi-abstracted sculptures from Brazilian soapstone. In 1998 he began a series of art bikes built from a collection of one-speed cruiser bicycles, mostly from the '30s and '40s.