Gwen Cann was a prolifically diverse artist. This is evident to anyone seeing her memorial exhibition in the West Gallery of the Masterworks Foundation. Indeed, her work is so technically varied, that the Masterworks’ exhibition hardly does justice to her accomplishments, specifically as an artist, but from what we learned from the exhibition’s’ written statement, she was also a very successful educator and an authority on sea-shells and origami. Much of what she did is by now out of Bermuda and thus unavailable for this particular exhibition. I understand that she was especially noted for her use of sea-shells in her art and it was through this process that she began to study and collect shells. Although we are told that she studied sculpture with Byllee Lang, this aspect her her work is unrepresented in the exhibition. We can only wonder about what she accomplished with this art form.

As may be expected, with such an experimental and diverse artist, not everything she did was of equal quality and I imagine that she had her share of real failures. Not everything experimental artist’s do is equally successful, but she was willing to take the risk. In this present exhibition, her textile creations, are particularly interesting and possibly her most successful works; they dominate the show with twenty pieces in the exhibition. What is remarkable is that in making her fibre creations, she started at the very beginning of the process, first by spinning her yarn, dyeing it and then weaving the design. In one of her exhibited fibre works, she used the process typical of that used in making rya rugs. At other times she studied and then began to use lace in her creations. Additionally she has a couple macramé pieces in this show as well.

In addition to her textile works, she painted and in this show, there are works in watercolour and oils, but even here she was experimenting and extending the technical boundaries of each process. For example, she used a resist in her watercolours to create works more like that of batik. In her oil paint she experimented with various thicknesses of paint, to produce a quality of relief, much like low relief sculpture. Added to all these art forms, there are three mosaics in the show. A mosaic is a design made up of many tiny pieces of various coloured tiles called tesserae. These are so placed that, in the end, make an over-all design.

Twenty years ago, Gwen Cann was a dominant figure in the Bermuda art community, but tragically and seemingly, quite suddenly, while still in her artistic prime, ill health forced her into retirement. We can only speculate about what she might have done, had her health allowed her to continue her creative activities. I remember her as a energetic, forthright, even feisty personality. I am told that she was always a student, ever in the process of learning something new; trying new techniques or attempting to convey a quality or action in a new way. She was a keen observer of the visual world and had great curiosity about other places and cultures, especially Japan and it was there that she came across Origami, the art of Japanese paper folding. By this means, designs usually resembling birds and animals are produced.

The exhibition continues through March 16, 2007. This is a rare opportunity to once again see the work of a remarkable artist, who is now a part of Bermuda’s art history.