Beverly Tosh has continually used figures to express her thoughts and emotions: “When I am drawing figures the imagery is moving from the inside out.” “The figure is everything to me. I relate so strongly to the way I feel as a person. There is a quiet space where thought develops, an internal space, a vessel: supportive, positive and embracing.”

Thoughts and emotions evolve meditatively, almost unconsciously, through the brush on paper until finally the calligraphic, elongated forms emerge. These figures are “edited to an essence with the structure economy of brush stroke.”

Of her studies with a master brush painter while living in Singapore, Tosh says reveals how she “came to love the feel, the way [she] holds the brush, the way the strokes were informed by something inside. It is a different way of touching the surface. It allowed me to know the figures so well that I could work from inside myself.”

This minimalism means that each ink stroke is loaded with meaning as it is laid down in space. All her marks are integral to the image. There is no misleading peripheral information. “All my works are about silence, but these are also about communication.”

EDUCATION:

-Master of Fine Art (Painting), University of Calgary, 1987

-Alberta College of Art & Design, Distinction (Painting), 1981-1985

-Bachelor of Arts (Psychology & Fine Art), University of Saskatchewan, 1968

RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2008 -War Brides: Portrait of an Era, Canadian War Museum -War Brides: One-Way Passage, Royal BC Museum

2006 – Pier 21 Museum, Halifax, Canada – Diefenbaker Canada Museum, University of Saskatchewan

2005 – One-Way Passage, Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, AB, Canada – One-Way Passage, Kelowna Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada

2003 -Second Skin, Master’s Gallery Ltd., Calgary, Alberta

1999 -Body of Work, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary

1998 -Articulations (with poet Fred Wah), Muttart Public Art Gallery, Calgary

1996 -Thaipusam, Virginia Christopher Galleries, Calgary -Heavy Water, Muttart Public Art Gallery, Calgary

RECENT AWARDS:

-elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA), 2005

-Lieutenant Governor’s Celebration of the Arts Pin, presented by Dr. Lynda Haverstock, Saskatchewan, 2005

-Visual Arts Project Grant, Alberta Foundation for the Arts 2005 – 2003, 2001

-Impresario Award, Calgary Region Arts Foundation, 2003

-Distinguished Alumni Award of Excellence, 75th Anniversary, Alberta College of Art and Design, Board of Directors, 2002

SELECTED COLLECTIONS:

Canadian Pacific Corp. Lethbridge Regional Hospital Esso Resources Canada Ltd. Foothills Hospital, Calgary Olga Havel Foundation, Prague Husky Oil Rapport, Toronto Cold Lake Regional Hospital Alberta Art Foundation Talisman Energy British Petroleum Corporation Norcen Energy Resources Calgary Allied Arts Foundation Sun Oil Ltd. City of Nizhnevartovsk, Russia Gulf Canada Resources University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton