Anna Syperek met her husband Peter Murphy in Toronto where Anna was a Fine Arts student at York University and Peter was developing his photographic skills in the big city. They moved to Antigonish, Peter’s home town, in 1971. By the late seventies Anna was ready to resume her art education ; she entered NSCAD in 1977 , graduating in Fine Arts in 1980, her medium as a printmaker is the difficult art of etching. The Lyghtesome Gallery has represented her work since 1977.
Anna also embraced the profession of teaching and taught art for Continuing Education, at Guysborough . By 1986, Peter and Anna were ready to build their home on Mahoney’s Beach road where she looks at the sea and works at a wonderful garden as well as working in her on site studio.
Her art career was also moving forward as she joined the art department at St Francis Xavier University, teaching an extension art course organized by NSCAD. She was Tom Roach’s sabbatical replacement in 1989 and continued teaching, introducing students to the etching process. After the art department’s move to its new location in Immaculata Anna teaches 3rd year drawing and water-colour.
Syperek’s etching technique features a remarkably fine texture; unlike famous etchings such as those by Rembrandt, with his dark passages indicated by specific interior or induced light sources, Anna’s delicate delineation of the bare branches of winter clinging to the land together with a small farm nestling in a valley, conveys an emotion that is also strong and enduring.
In the late nineties Syperek embarked on oil paints- rendering the sweep of the landscape required a larger scale – in a few years she had enough work to consider a solo exhibition.With this in mind, the Inverness County Centre for the Arts was contacted and a tour of western Scotland venues was arranged. The first showing was at the Inverness Art Centre in June 2005, followed by her solo exhibition at St Frances Xavier University art gallery. The overseas opening was at the Gaelic College, Isle of Skye, then thework travelled to North Uist, Outer Hebrides, Strontian and Glen Urquhart Centre. The show was well received and experiencing Scottish sea travel quite an unusual thrill- the song “Over the sea to Skye” comes to mind.
The catalogue is produced in both English and Gaelic. Lines of poetry by Joyce Rankin and an introduction by Dr Dan MacInnes are included.
The landscapes are large commanding views of Cape Breton farms- Syperek integrates the work of the farm- husbandry- with the life of the people who build the houses and sheds- they and the animals are present in the spirit that informs all her work- that seasonal recapturing of the memory of our roots.
Felicity Redgrave RCA
Anna Syperek met her husband Peter Murphy in Toronto where Anna was a Fine Arts student at York University and Peter was developing his photographic skills in the big city. They moved to Antigonish, Peter’s home town, in 1971. By the late seventies Anna was ready to resume her art education ; she entered NSCAD in 1977 , graduating in Fine Arts in 1980, her medium as a printmaker is the difficult art of etching. The Lyghtesome Gallery has represented her work since 1977.
Anna also embraced the profession of teaching and taught art for Continuing Education, at Guysborough . By 1986, Peter and Anna were ready to build their home on Mahoney’s Beach road where she looks at the sea and works at a wonderful garden as well as working in her on site studio.
Her art career was also moving forward as she joined the art department at St Francis Xavier University, teaching an extension art course organized by NSCAD. She was Tom Roach’s sabbatical replacement in 1989 and continued teaching, introducing students to the etching process. After the art department’s move to its new location in Immaculata Anna teaches 3rd year drawing and water-colour.
Syperek’s etching technique features a remarkably fine texture; unlike famous etchings such as those by Rembrandt, with his dark passages indicated by specific interior or induced light sources, Anna’s delicate delineation of the bare branches of winter clinging to the land together with a small farm nestling in a valley, conveys an emotion that is also strong and enduring.
In the late nineties Syperek embarked on oil paints- rendering the sweep of the landscape required a larger scale – in a few years she had enough work to consider a solo exhibition.With this in mind, the Inverness County Centre for the Arts was contacted and a tour of western Scotland venues was arranged. The first showing was at the Inverness Art Centre in June 2005, followed by her solo exhibition at St Frances Xavier University art gallery.. The overseas opening was at the Gaelic College, Isle of Skye, then thework travelled to North Uist, Outer Hebrides, Strontian and Glen Urquhart Centre. The show was well received and experiencing Scottish sea travel quite an unusual thrill- the song “Over the sea to Skye” comes to mind.
The catalogue is produced in both English and Gaelic. Lines of poetry by Joyce Rankin
and an introduction by Dr Dan MacInnes are included.
The landscapes are large commanding views of Cape Breton farms- Syperek integrates the work of the farm- husbandry- with the life of the people who build the houses and sheds- they and the animals are present in the spirit that informs all her work- that seasonal recapturing of the memory of our roots.
Felicity RedgraveRCA
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