For most of her adult life, Julie Forrester Clark couldn’t explain why Scotland kept pulling her back, only that it did, over and over, more times than she can count.
On Sunday, she shared her exploration of that question on the walls of the Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre.
The exhibition, called “Cianalas,” takes its name from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning a deep longing for a place or a strong sense of belonging to one.
It runs until April 25 in the Joyner Gallery at the Pumphouse, and presents semi-abstract acrylic paintings rooted in Clark’s repeated travels to Scotland.
Clark was born in Glasgow and has spent decades returning to Scotland, drawn to its coastlines, its open landscapes and something harder to name. The feeling, she eventually learned, had a name in Gaelic culture.
“There’s a belief that places don’t belong to people, rather that people belong to places, and I definitely belong to Scotland,” said Clark.
For years, she had no framework for what she was experiencing. When she discovered the concept of cianalas, the recognition shifted something.
“Learning that cianalas is a real thing, and that I’m not the only one who experiences it, has actually been great therapy for me,” she said.
The paintings do not depict specific Scottish locations. Instead, they translate the sensation of being there: wild coastal weather, vast open space, the particular quality of light on a Scottish hillside.
Clark works in vivid blues, yellows, pinks and oranges, building each piece through layering, sanding, spraying ink and water and mark-making with unconventional tools.
She works flat on a surface rather than at an easel, rotating the piece constantly, sometimes folding it, sometimes pressing physical objects into the paint.
“I’m pretty rough with them. I sand them sometimes, and I even put a power hose on one once just to see what would happen,” said Clark.
Nothing is planned in advance. A composition emerges slowly, through accumulation and revision, until something begins to resolve itself into form.
“I paint intuitively, so I don’t have any plan when I start. I just start making marks, and eventually something begins to show itself,” she said.
Clark came to painting through photography, training at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Montana in 2009, then working through encaustic techniques, an ancient method using heated beeswax and pigment, before shifting to acrylics during the COVID-19 pandemic when ventilation constraints in her basement studio made the wax-based process unworkable.
Rima Boles, director of the Niagara Pumphouse Arts Centre, introduced Clark at the March 29 opening reception.
“Her paintings move beyond literal representation and invite us into emotional landscapes shaped by memory, sensation, and personal connection,” said Boles.
Clark reflected on what she now understands the paintings to have always been doing.
“I realized that all of it was not just about documenting this place that holds on to me so tightly, but it was also about helping me cope with the struggle,” she said.
Clark will host an Artist Playdate workshop on April 11 and 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Pumphouse. Program and registration details are available at niagarapumphouse.ca.
