Barbara Houston: Under the Same Sky

June 2023

Born in Saskatchewan, Houston was influenced by Modernist Art and landscape painting as expression of people and place, community and belonging. Leaving the Prairies, she studied at Parson’s School of Design in New York City and holds a Master of Architecture and Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Manitoba. Leading her award winning design firm based in Vancouver for twenty years, she gathered momentum, collecting skills and observations to create space and discover opportunity.


Houston’s full time creative practice in Newfoundland was the culmination of a cross country journey, arriving in Bonavista in 2019, and establishing Barbara Houston Art Studio.


Under the Same Sky continue at Christina Parker Gallery until June 30.
(Images: Water’s Edge,Acrylic, archival ink on Belgian linen, 20 × 20″, 2022; Under the Same Sky,Acrylic, archival ink, Japanese graphite on raw Belgian linen, VERSO, 48″ diameter, 2023; Inland Pond, 50km,Acrylic, archival ink on Belgian linen, 32 × 20″ 2023 – courtesy Christina Parker Gallery.)

Fiction

NORTHERN DETACHMENT

BY Clancy Margaret

The wind was still, but the cold was biting all the same. Stepping outside made her sinuses burn and her eyes water. She brushed the snow off the seat of her snowmobile—a mid-nineties Ski-Doo, always giving her trouble. She surveyed the town as she waited for the engine to warm up. It’s squat vinyl sided homes glowed amidst the dim winter daytime. Snowmobile tracks crisscrossed on the road but not a person was in sight. She checked her handheld GPS. The coordinates lined up with somewhere northwest, about a forty-five minute ride under the blanket of dark. There were no stars today. It was always cloudy.