Working with basic acrylic on canvas, Toronto abstract artist Lesia Anna proves that sophisticated, high-class art can be fun, too. Her fanciful interpretations of the every day illustrate that we can find loveliness even in the mundane.

Purely aesthetic, the paintings currently on display in the Auxiliary Gallery at the Cre8ery say, “Look at me!”

The colours alone are enough to distract the eye from anything else in the room, but it is what the artist does with the colours that shows the viewer the meaning of art.

Carrot Common Square in the Rain displays a vibrant city scene with windswept pedestrians carrying umbrellas as they walk. The rain is a torrent of coloured diagonal streaks, beautifying the dull brown ground with shocking shades of purple, turquoise and yellow. Background details, such as a ladder leaning against a building, compliment the painting’s lively personality.

An energetic fervour infuses the whimsically-titled All That Jazz, a less-contained piece featuring swirling thin lines of light blue, black and red. These loops and twirls draw the eye, against a cloudy background of pinks, browns and deep blues. A true beauty of a masterpiece, Anna brings the colours to life in this abstract musical painting.

The face of Horse stares directly at the viewer with unblinking eyes; his body, hidden in the shadows of acrylic, gives the illusion that he is walking straight out of the frame. Drizzles of white, red and green ripple over the canvas, almost as though the artist painted the horse first and felt that it looked too serious on its own. The splotches of paint, falling at random on the canvas, appear childlike and silly over top of the solemn image of the horse.

Haphazard droplets of black and white fall in vertical lines down Poplars of Steinback, conflicting with the black and white horizontal lines of bark on the trees. Mixing lime greens with mustard yellows, this piece is as equally fearless as her others. Countless shades of white-grey-blue-black-green-brown make up the elegance of the trees, demonstrating Anna’s talent and sense of playfulness.

The theme of the sophisticated abstract ties Anna’s paintings together, brightening the patch of wall that they hang from and commanding attention.

Although the squiggles of paint may seem too jazzy and over-the-top in some places, such as in Horse, her artistic ability is evident beneath the devil-may-care attitude of the wild colours.

This unconventional art is not something to be missed.

Lesia Anna’s exhibit is on display at the Cre8ery’s Auxiliary Gallery (second floor, 125 Adelaide St.) until Sunday, June 6.

Published in Volume 64, Number 25 of The Uniter (April 1, 2010)