PAINTINGS
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Wallace
Edwards
Wallace Edwards draws and paints animals with an acute eye and an easy hand,
transferring their quirks and attitudes to paper with an uncanny insight into
their personalities. His animal portraits are magical, fantastical, captivating
and amusing.
Trained at the Ontario College of Art, Wallace Edwards turned to detailed
drawing and animal studies, relentlessly pursuing his goal until he captured
the essence of his subject. After graduation he produced illustrations for
the Metro Toronto zoo and for environment Canada who mailed him live worms
to draw.
Now living in Yarker, Ontario he works in a small studio crammed with books,
model planes and robots, where he compiles sketch after sketch, some of which
are sent to a gallery in New Jersey where he is gaining a strong following.
In Alphabeasts, the book that won for him the Governor General's Award for
children's illustration, Edwards allows his imagination to run riot, placing
his whacky but anatomically realistic animals in situations that, strangely
but exactly suit their personalities. Witness a crocodile lolling regally
back against velvet and you can't help thinking - yup, that's what a croc
would do given half a chance!
As acute with words as he is with paint, Wallace often adds captions that
play on the words pertaining to the animal he is painting and the situation
he has placed it in. His jewel colours snag the eye in an instant, and the
sly humour and delightful personalities of his subjects capture the heart.
