Boyd Waites | Senses and Pathways
November 7 – 21

Reception: November 7th from 3–5 PM
RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

Presales are open Saturday, Oct 31 @ 10 am, in-person, e-mail and via phone at 613-729-0003. If you would like to preview an artwork before collecting it, please contact the gallery at info@wallspacegallery.ca

Wall Space Gallery is thrilled to present Senses and Pathways, a solo exhibition by Boyd Waites. There is a familiarity to Waites’ landscapes, even when the places they depict are difficult to identify. A distant horizon, the suggestion of water, or a break in the clouds is sometimes all that remains of a recognizable scene. In Senses and Pathways, Waites draws on his lifelong connection to the natural world to explore how landscapes can hold the emotions and memories we associate with them.

Light is perhaps the most compelling presence in these paintings. It appears in unexpected places, glowing through darkened landforms, spreading across water, or emerging from layers of colour. In some works, the landscape seems to gather around a distant source of light, drawing our attention toward something just beyond reach. These openings become pathways through the paintings, suggesting the possibility of moving forward, even when the destination remains unknown.

Waites’ landscapes are not tied to any particular location. Their forms are softened, sometimes almost entirely dissolved into colour, leaving only the impression of a place. There is a quality of recollection in these paintings, where the atmosphere of a landscape remains more vivid than its details. Warm amber tones meet deep blues and muted greys, while the distinction between land, water, and sky becomes increasingly uncertain.

Working in oil, Waites builds and reworks his compositions using brushes, rags, and his hands, often removing paint as much as applying it. His approach is instinctive and physical, yet the finished works possess an unexpected delicacy. Beneath their soft surfaces are traces of repeated gestures and decisions, revealing the time spent finding the right balance between form and atmosphere.

Created between late 2025 and 2026, Senses and Pathways reflects Waites’ interest in painting the experience of being in nature rather than its literal appearance. His landscapes leave room for our own associations, recalling the particular feeling of a place, a moment of changing light, or the anticipation of what might lie beyond the horizon.

Curator
Haruka Toyoda

Featured works:
Possibility, oil on canvas
Passage, oil on canvas