Publisher’s note:
Recently, I attended the early evening Opening of the exhibition Stories of Belonging by former London artist Colleen Heslin at Forest City Gallery. Unfamiliar with Heslin’s work, I listened with interest to the Artist Talk between the artist and the gallery’s director, Adi Berardini, and read Reilly Knowles’ accompanying pamphlet, Colours of the Flesh. Both the talk and the pamphlet primarily focussed on Heslin’s work through the lens of queer pride.
I spent time with each of the six pieces in the exhibition, trying to connect with the artist’s talk and what was written in the pamphlet. It was not until later that evening, sitting quietly on my back deck, that it struck me that Heslin’s work held significant aesthetic presence, beyond its intended theme. This aspect, I felt, deserved deeper exploration.
To that end, I reached out to two well-established local abstract artists—Patrick Thibert and Deborah Worsfold—who in their own art engage with similar aesthetic elements, particularly that of colour field painting and value gradation. In my view, both artists possess a high degree of creative sensitivity, a strong sense of discernment, and a deep understanding of art and aesthetics. Each of their responses to Colleen Heslin’s exhibition reflects a fullness of authentic voice.
I have published each of their responses. Below is Patrick Thibert’s response. Deborah Worsfold’s response is published under THE LONG VIEW.
Reflective response to “Stories of Belonging” and the work of Colleen Heslin by Patrick Thibert
The more things change, the more the past has something to offer.
For Colleen Heslin, it is the long history of quilting and the knowledge of fabrics and sewing that come with that history, as well as the colour field painting approach to the two-dimensional surface that they work with.
As a sculptor, colour has come and gone for me, only to return in earnest since 2016 with the colouration developed through the industrial powder coating process for my aluminum wall constructions. My wall-dependent sculptures come together in part, like Colleen’s, through chromatic formalism. It is through that lens that I approach Colleen Heslin’s paintings and see what they have accomplished.
On entering the Forest City Gallery, one quickly steps into the main exhibition space. In doing so, the viewer is greeted by a barrage of carefully placed, colourful, and irregular shapes that form the abstract compositions. The shapes allude, in part, to a geometric tradition. There is a playfulness in the construction of the individual shapes that add to the chosen colour palettes that define each of the six paintings. What holds my interest beyond the personal choice of colours is how well the stitching process adds a visual secondary line that subtly introduces variation and breaks to the shapes. In many ways, Colleen can be seen to construct their loosely defined geometric shapes not unlike my process.
What you see on entering the exhibition space is not necessarily what you get. Initially, you are struck by the large, and at times, imposing fields of colour. Slowly, but surely, as you investigate each painting, your eyes suspend what you think you saw. The initial illusion of six strictly geometric paintings collapses as you take the time to study each of the six works. What you see from a distance is, in fact, not what you suspect was there. Once you are more closely confronting the stained surfaces, you begin to understand the work better.
Upon closer examination of what Colleen chose to exhibit, I discovered a number of elements that revealed themselves gradually. It is only through closer inspection that the real surface pattern found within the individual large shapes becomes better understood. The nuances that the fabric offers add to and take the viewer’s understanding of the coloured surface into another realm. From a distance, the intense colours mask the subtle colour variations created by the fabric itself. On closer inspection, the varied weave of the fabric introduces a surprising variation in colours across the defined shapes. The slightly textured surfaces of the fabrics sometimes take the dyes differently, resulting in darker values of the chosen colour. What a lovely, unexpected development!
The work that forms this exhibition is not just about colour but also about line and edge. These three elements can also be found in my three-dimensional aluminum wall-dependent sculptures. The viewer is initially confronted by the straight edges that define the outer perimeters of the square canvases. It is only when your eye moves inward that a straight line ceases to dominate. Instead, the outer edges that define the various shapes are subtly irregular along any given length. Delineating the irregular edges ultimately unifies the shapes in a fresh way and creates a sense of shifting movement that adds to the artist’s efforts to bring the composition together. For me, this contributes to the playfulness and strength of the paintings.
What I enjoy and identify with is Colleen’s constructive approach to assembling the shapes that form the final composition in each of the paintings. For me, the paintings rise above the usual approach to laying down colour to define a colour field with its emphasis on a constructed approach to presenting their chosen composition. The constructed assemblages of coloured shapes define the intended composition. Each shape is meticulously sewn, leaving a crisp edge differentiating it from its neighbour. In the end the shapes are visually expansive and generally dominate the visual field. The crafted shapes hold and shift across the large, coloured grounds, creating both movement and depth.
The work on exhibition illustrates Colleen’s command of coloured dyes as in System Failure. In this body of work the constructed shapes appear to dance across the picture plane touching a number of edges in the process.
The stacking of shapes, as an organizational principle, in Automation Program, offers a broken square, once again, presenting a square within a square. The linear elements create a vertical moving group of horizontal elements mirroring the edge of the outer square.
The accompanying essay by Reilly Knowles helps the viewer identify with the work in the exhibition in a different way than I have. As Reilly points out, Colleen’s resplendent use of colour comes in part from those representing the LGBTQ collection of defined colours. As artists, we find colour everywhere we look. It goes without saying that our interest in colour is very personal. Colleen’s choice of colours to work with goes beyond that association. I think the painting titled, Micro / Macro is a good example. Although the chosen shapes allude to a geometric tradition, they break with perfect geometry through their use of beautifully varied lines that define the edges of the shapes. Even the small yellow circle is not a perfect circle. What we are given suggests that it is so. There is a freshness in the use of subtle patterning created by the variegated surface of the dyed fabric, which becomes apparent only when the viewer stands closely and observes the fabric’s surfaces. For me, the work exists on its own merit and represents a fresh re-examination of colour field painting. This exhibition is a visual experience well worth indulging in.
Patrick Thibert. (Written June 20, 2025)
Patrick Thibert resides in Mount Bridges and is a retired professor from the Fine Arts Department at Fanshawe College. He has dealt with colour on and off for more than 50 years. Read more about Patrick Thibert on his website: Patrick Thibert – Works
Colleen Heslin Stories of Belonging
Forest City Gallery
May 29-July 24, 2025
