Texada Island-based painter Cindy Babyn interprets landscapes from across Canada and characterizes them with bold energetic colours. Also a musician, she studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory in Holland and received her degree in music performance from University of Toronto. In addition to playing western classical music, she also played on many festival stages across Canada in a world-music ensemble with musicians from Afghanistan and India. While developing as a painter, Babyn began to acquire instruments from around the world, including crystal singing bowls, gongs and chimes. She also plays live, sound-healing music for yoga classes and massage-therapy sessions.
Your paintings feature scenes from all over Canada. Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Toronto and lived in Ottawa for 13 years. I moved to Texada Island a couple of years ago. I live in a tiny house I designed myself. I make art from places I’ve been. I really love being in nature, so I go and take photographs and bring them home and work from those.
What mediums do you use?
Primarily, I’m using soft pastels, but I also do some oil painting. I like to amp up the colours of the landscapes. It’s kind of hyper-colourized to catch a feeling for the energy of a place. I’m not a hyper-realist painter. I just like to convey the feeling of what it was like in a place and make it more interesting with colour.
Are there any artists who inspire you?
There is one major artist: his name is Gordon Harrison. Some people call him the eighth in The Group of Seven. I never had formal art training. I took art in high school, but apart from that I’m basically self taught, but I took two full-day, private master classes with Harrison and feel a great deal of relation to his work.
Tell us about your music.
I’m a sound healer. I play beautiful instruments from around the world and regularly do group sound healing in Powell River and collaborate in massage and sound healing. I got my degree in music performance, but really didn’t love music as much as when I started going to crystal singing bowl events in Ottawa. The music is so beautiful and it’s very relaxing in a stressful world.
For more information, go to godogwood.com/cindy-babyn.
