Nelly Kazenbroot

Home: Nanaimo, British Columbia
Title: Nothing but Blue Skies
Media: Acrylic / acrylique
Dimensions: 76 x 102 cm
Website: www.nellykazenbroot.com

An acrylic painting of a boy getting ready to begin: a new day, his first job, adulthood. But is he about to step confidently out under a perfect spring sky and grow into something beautiful like the flowers on his tie, or has he stopped to stare doubtfully at what is merely a pretty image captured in a wood frame? Is Sebastian’s mind perhaps in as much turmoil as the shifting colours on his shirt, and is the future ahead of him as unstable as the gray wall behind him? Light, colour and form are the tools I use to give my portrait of Sebastian a surreal twist. They also allow me to produce art that is like a bottomless well, and therefore worth falling into over and over again.

EDUCATION:
Courses in design, drafting and fine arts at Malaspina College. Full-time study in creative writing, fine arts and sociology at the Universtiy of Victoria.

EXHIBITIONS:
2009 Nanaimo FCA Spring Showcase juried group show
1990 “Moments of Contemplation” (one-woman show), School House Gallery, Qualicum Beach, B.C., January
1987 Autumn Show Case, Nanaimo Art Gallery and Exhibition Centre (Madrona Gallery)
1986 Juried Show, British Columbia Regional Art Festival, Duncan B.C.
1986 Juried Show, Vancouver Island Regional Art Festival, Duncan B.C.
1986 Autumn Show Case, Nanaimo Art Gallery and Exhibition Centre (Madrona Gallery)

PUBLICATIONS (with artist’s art):
2006 Over the Rainbow with Googol and Googolplex (illustrations and text; early reader chapter book), 64pp. Victoria, B. C, Canada: Orca Book Publishers
2005 Under the Sea with Googol and Googolplex (illustrations and text; early reader chapter book), 64pp. Victoria, B. C.: Orca Book Publishers
2004 Down the Chimney with Googol and Googolplex (illustrations and text, early reader chapter book) 64pp. Victoria, B. C.: Orca Book Publishers
1995 Oil painting: “Tikki and Friend” on cover of my book Wild Life (poems,) 78pp. Windsor, Ont.: Netherlandic Press
2002 Acrylic painting: “Oracle” on cover of Stephen Guppy’s book of poems, Understanding Heaven, Toronto, Ont.; Wolsack & Wynn

AWARDS:
1994 First Prize, Canadian Chamber of Poetry Contest
1986 Award for Oils and Acrylics and Honourable Mention for Oils and Acrylics, Juried Show,. Autumn Show Case, Nanaimo Art Gallery and Exhibition Centre (Madrona Gallery)
1987 Award for Oils and Acrylics, Juried Show, Autumn Show Case, Nanaimo Art Gallery and Exhibition Centre Madrona Gallery)
2005 Children’s Book Centre OUR CHOICE nomination for Down the Chimney with Googol and Googolplex