October
26, 2016
Joyce
Frances Devlin: Artist in a “new era of energy and inspiration”
Ottawa
artist recognized in Vernon exhibit; reflects on art and spirit in
history and her life
 In her 85th year the Ottawa
area
artist Joyce Frances Devlin remains a dynamic figure, radiating energy
and spiritual power. Every summer she opens her home gallery in
Burritt’s Rapids to the public with an exhibition of her recent works.
This June, Joyce also had an exhibition of her work at the Vernon
Public Art Gallery in British Columbia entitled “Along the Way.” The
Gallery’s permanent collection already contains a number of her works,
and with this exhibition she was invited to add to this collection. Her
public presentation in June highlighted the Vernon Public Art Gallery’s
plans to build a new gallery.
In this talk, Joyce identified the spiritual source of her artistic
inspiration. She briefly explained that since humanity’s earliest
creative expressions on cave walls, outpourings of art have always
followed the appearance of great prophets or “Manifestations of God”,
who have brought teachings to guide mankind appropriate to different
times. Great periods of art have always followed from the energy
released by these great prophets such as Krishna, Abraham, Zoroaster,
Moses, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed. This process has continued today with
the teachings of the Bab and Baha’u’llah,
 who Devlin identified as “the
promised One of all the world’s great religions.” With this
“new era of energy and inspiration released by these two great
Manifestations of God,” Devlin stated, “we can’t imagine where that is
going to take us.”
Joyce affirms that her work has
always been influenced by her love of God. At the age of twelve she was
reading selections of scripture from the great religions and
she came to her own realization that Christ had returned. One day, some
years later, after announcing this conviction in the lunchroom of the
Vancouver School of Art, she was approached by “an old woman
attending one of the classes” who quietly invited Joyce to a Vancouver
meeting where she heard a talk by Allan Raynor, a member of the Baha’i
National Spiritual Assembly. At this talk, she instantly recognized
Baha’u’llah and she became a Baha’i in 1952. Her art has developed
alongside her identity as a Baha’i since her early student days.
In Ottawa, Joyce’s paintings can be found in the halls of Canada’s
Parliament Buildings, where she has done the portraits of a number of
senators. Her works are also part of the Ottawa Public Art Gallery’s
Firestone collection. She is also represented in other Canadian
collections including two University of Alberta public galleries and in
the public gallery in Vernon, BC.
Image
credits:
Photo of Joyce Devlin from the Ottawa Valley
Hum website (see link below)
Devlin painting entitled “Nan Gordon” (1963)
from the Vernon Public Art Gallery.
Further
reading
“Joyce Frances Devlin: So Much Beauty,” The
Hum, 1 June 2015
“Joyce Frances Devlin: Painter and a Painted
House”, Habicurious.com,
22 April 2015
a 2014 profile on Joyce Frances Devlin on
this website
|
