Artist File
Artist Spotlight: See Evocative Paintings By Colleen Heslin
Updated on November 17, 2023
In our Artist File column, art advisor Diana Hamm of WK ART shares the artists that have caught her eye.
The Artist: Colleen Heslin’s art defies classification, pushing the boundaries of painting. Working with textiles, she dyes, cuts and stitches to create pieces inspired in equal measure by the Color Field Painting movement — think Agnes Martin and Helen Frankenthaler — and American quilting traditions. Colleen, who lives on traditional Tla’amin territory in qathet, B.C., creates work that enjoys a push-pull between what is often considered “high” and “low” art, exploring both ends of the spectrum with fascination and respect. The end result? Colorful paintings that exude warmth while exploring the artistic process.
The Works: Having studied both painting and photography at Emily Carr University and Concordia University, Colleen has a strong understanding of how art is made. She applies these methods to her current body of work, which makes for a distinct visual language. Each piece starts with fabric, both cotton and linen canvas, that’s hand-dyed in small batches and hung to dry. This develops a surface texture that gives a tactile feel to the piece, once finished. The next step is creating the forms within the work. In a process that lies somewhere between collage and craft, Colleen sews together different strips and bits of fabric to make the painting.
Collecting: Colleen has exhibited extensively across Canada. She’s won numerous awards including the RBC Canadian Painting Competition and the Tanabe Prize for B.C. Painters. Her work is in many major collections across the country such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. Her works start at $4,000.
Keep scrolling to learn more about her work!
The artist’s installation at Kamloops Art Gallery in 2021.
Colleen is also interested in the dichotomy between art and craft. Historically, the high arts field was male dominated, while the crafts area was more associated with women. “In contemporary art, the concept holds more value than the medium,” says Colleen. “A medium is a means of production in relation to the concept. My work is an example of contemporary pluralism, not art-male and craft- female, because it disregards fixed medium values.If you look at contemporary painting, the most interesting key actors are female.”
Colleen (pictured) is formally trained as an artist yet her practice of cutting and sewing each piece of fabric together is just as steeped in the world of craft, nodding to generations of crafting women who came before her.
Her works explore color, form and surface texture. Take Lifeline (2020), for example. Alternating pink and black shapes throughout the canvas draw your eye to the circle in the middle, but it’s the orange at the top that makes the work feel complete. Placing something of a surprise in an otherwise structured pattern adds dimension.
I love how the seams in her pieces are visible to the eye; this creates a materiality that you don’t get from painting alone. In Collecting and Purging (2021), for instance, the blue to the yellow and back again is not the flat, slick, industrially produced object that we’re so used to revering but, instead, there’s an organic and personal feel to the finished piece. Each shade of yellow and blue differs slightly, which would have been done at the outset. “Varying dye density is an intentional shift for subtle complexity in my paintings,” says Colleen. “When dyeing, the degree of agitation affects the surface outcomes, and having a bit of gradient texture can help establish depth.”
Close, but never touching (2022) measures 76 by 94 inches; this scale of painting would’ve been very physical to create. I love the stark contrast between the purple and the red that visually shocks you into engaging with the piece. When working with canvas, the artist uses an old industrial sewing machine. She enjoys the process, but it’s also thought-provoking. “It makes me mindful of sweatshops, and how undervalued the labour of sewing is globally, and the skill that’s involved,” she says. “I think about the autonomy, dignity and leisure I’m afforded in my workday. All of that is what makes room to develop ideas — it’s a privilege to work this way.”
Colleen’s exploration of global issues — gender disparities, consumer excess, labor exploitation, to name just a few — while using such a minimal language is a testament to the understanding that, sometimes, less is more. This artist’s ability to oscillate between different factions of art makes her works beautiful and compelling.
Diana Hamm of WK ART is a Toronto art adviser. A graduate of Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, U.K., Diana focuses on contemporary art and discovering emerging artists. She also advises private clients on acquisitions and collection-building. Find out more at wkart.ca.