biography
Canadian Figurative Artist C.S. McNeil
Canadian figurative artist, C.S. McNeil, specializes in mixed media works and commissioned paintings.
McNeil's work very simply and plainly celebrates "the way light attaches itself to a woman".
Her use of varied flesh tones, exaggerated palettes and heightened contrast has been likened to the figurative works and celebrated portraiture of Lucian Freud; while still beholden to a stripped-down simplicity (lone subjects –often nude and isolated against ‘barely there’ backdrops), that has offered up premeditated nods toward the earlier works of Antonio Tamburro and unplanned winks at the “Naked Beauty” of Alex Katz.
McNeil has a unique affinity for ‘the art of allure’. Even the most casual spectator cannot overcome the urge to step closer to examine the texture of a high relief dress, a deep haunting stare, or the play of light and shadow on a piece of fabric. For it is at this fleeting moment that the artist succeeds in captivating us by welding together viewer and composition, the real and the imagined, into one. Through the application of resins and varnishes, she creates a lucidity through which the viewer is drawn —even deeper— ‘into the moment’.
Past Exhibitions Include
606, Solo Exhibition,
606 King St West, Toronto
Wide Open, Solo Show,
Spadina Ave, Toronto
Villa 221, Group Show,
Wynwood Arts District, Miami
Multiversal, Art Basel Satellite Show,
Wynwood Arts District, Miami
Collection Privee Gallery,
Lincoln Road, South Beach, Miami
Audrey Love Gallery, Group Exhibition,
Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami
Collection Privee Gallery,
Wynwood Arts District, Miami
606 King St West, Toronto
Wide Open, Solo Show,
Spadina Ave, Toronto
Villa 221, Group Show,
Wynwood Arts District, Miami
Multiversal, Art Basel Satellite Show,
Wynwood Arts District, Miami
Collection Privee Gallery,
Lincoln Road, South Beach, Miami
Audrey Love Gallery, Group Exhibition,
Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami
Collection Privee Gallery,
Wynwood Arts District, Miami
Driven by innate artistic talent, McNeil rediscovered her first love of painting after a two-decade-career-focus on Digital Media Advertising, as a Brand Strategist and Creative Director. Despite having sustained severe injuries to her dominant (right) hand, in 2011; that passion prevailed: she continues to reclaim and refine her craft today. She now divides her time —and strives to achieve a balance— between both her ‘digital media day job’ and her lifelong affinity for ‘all things paint’.