Perivale presents the work of Jay Favot

Above Killarney by Jay Favot

Painter Jay Favot tells beautiful stories. “I like to paint diverse stories and moments in time.

“I’m affected by moments. When I’m walking through a city and I notice the grand scale of it, I think it’s just as captivating as walking through a new rocky landscape or other natural environments,” says the artist who has attracted an enthusiastic following in Sudbury where he has had 10 solo exhibits.

His artwork can also be found in private and corporate collections throughout Canada.

The Perivale Gallery in Spring Bay, Manitoulin Island, will hold an exhibition of his recent work this July. A Celebration of Place opens July 13 and runs to July 19.

“I’ve established a great relationship with Shannon McMullan at Perivale Gallery. It’s been fantastic to reach new audiences, their enthusiasm has been encouraging,” says Favot, who works as a teacher in Sudbury.

He has won numerous awards and was the recipient of the Peg Forbes Memorial Award at the 39th Annual La Cloche Art Show (2016) for his painting The Crack.

His favourite medium is acrylic on canvas but he has worked with oils, pastels, Conte and charcoal.

“I love to experiment with colour and light. I take reference photos, but often I change them in the painting. I might put daybreak in a picture or I might change the intensity of the colours. I imbue the painting with the overall impression of being there and record it in some way, but then I add my own colour language to enhance the depth and vitality of the image.”

The artist was encouraged by his mother and later his drafting teacher to pursue his art.

“I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing. I spent hours sketching my surroundings and various cartoon characters, a mixture of what kids my age were interested in at the time. Although I had other interests including a variety of sports, I favoured drawing over all the others. This was all I wanted to do in my spare time and my dominant memory as a youth was of losing track of time and being totally immersed in sketching.”