(Posted 8:30 a.m., Feb. 10)
VACO exhibit features work of busy Quyon artist
By Fred Sherwin
Orleans Online

Quyon artist Marcio Melo is the featured artist at the Orléans Visual Arts Centre for the month of February. File Photo

Quyon artist Marcio Melo is a man on a mission. The Brazilian born artist is committed to using art to help motivate young people and teach them the power of teamwork and collaboration in the creative process.

For the past four years Melo has been going into schools and working with students in designing and painting murals.
During the first session the students are divided up into groups of three or four to work on various exercises. During the second session they get back together as a group and agree on a concept for the mural they then draw and paint it during the third session.

“It’s amazing when you see how the kids start working together in a creative environment. What I find interesting is their surprise at being able to do something like that in three days. it’s a revelation to them,”says Melo who currently has a one man exhibit at the Visual Arts Centre Orléans during the month of February.

Entitled “Muses, Music and Magic”, the exhibit is a collection of figurative abstract work that relies to a great extent on form and colour.
Melo says his use of colour comes from his Brazilian culture.

“Brazilian culture is very colourful. For me colour is like a musical instrument,” says Melo who is kept extremely busy between his work in the schools, painting murals on commission and his smaller pieces.

“Muses, Music and Magic” is on until March 2 at the Visual Arts Centre Orleans which is located on the main floor of the Orléans Recreation Centre on Youville Drive. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.

Elsewhere the Gloucester Gallery on the main floor of the Orléans Client Service Centre is hosting an exhibit of juried work by Ottawa Mixed Media Artists (OMMA) from Feb. 8 to Mar. 13. The exhibit explores a variety of developing techniques in the mixed media genre.

On the second floor of the Orléans Client Service Centre, visitors to the Cumberland Gallery can explore the work of David Farrar who who hails from Carp.

Farrar’s paintings depict the rural landscape, in all its rugged beauty, in exceptional detail and realism The attention to detail problem has something to do with Farrar’s “day job” as a commercial artist.

The Cumberland and Gloucester Galleries are open Monday to Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)

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