TORONTO—The Portrait Society of Canada is celebrating Canadian talent this month with an exhibit paying homage to some of the country’s most distinguished musicians through the art of portraiture.

More than 35 portraits of musicians from across Canada will be featured at the John B. Aird Gallery, located in the Macdonald Block building in the heart of Queen’s Park.

The exhibit joins the many tributes to Canadian musicians across Toronto, several on the occasion of the Mar. 8 Juno awards.

Included are singers, composers and instrumentalists from a variety of genres, among whom are Maestro Arman, founder of Sinfonia Toronto; award winning theatre and opera director Tom Diamond; and Grammy-award winning singer Walter Ostanek, Canada’s polka king.

The exhibit is organized by Veronica Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan, president and founder of the Portrait Society of Canada, who has worked professionally as a portrait artist for over 25 years.

“I believe it’s a sensational exhibition because visual art and music have so much in common—they both affect people through emotions,” said Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan who set out present the musicians through the eyes of visual artists.

The paintings are done in a variety of contemporary portrait styles, including classical realism, impressionism, primitivism, and photo realism. Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan, who paints in the classical tradition (old masters style), contributed three paintings: Tapestry New Opera director Tom Diamond, pianist Lucas Porter, and Juno-nominated composer Larysa Kuzmenko.

Revival of Portraiture

One of the oldest art forms in the world, portraiture reached its artistic peak in the Renaissance with the works of painters such as Rembrandt and Da Vinci. Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan describes this period as “timeless.”

“It represents our beauty, it represents an absolute grace, and it reflects the spiritual side of the portraiture. That’s why I admire it very much.”

In recent decades, however, portraiture has been shunned from the halls of contemporary art, making way for more abstract art, the type “where you can make a line on the canvas and sell it for $10 million,” quips Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan.

Surprisingly, the last 10 years have seen a revival in interest in traditional art forms. “The consciousness of our population has been raised dramatically—people are starting to admire art more and more. Especially in North America, there’s been a great revival of classical portraiture,” she says.

‘Miracle of the Portrait’

Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan calls portraiture “the highest achievement in visual art.” A specialized skill, it requires a minimum of 10 years training to master its techniques.

“It’s like opera in music. Everybody can sing, but just a few can sing opera. The same in visual art—everybody can draw and create something, but few can do portraits.”

The challenge lies in having to capture not only the likeness of the subject, but also its essence and personality.

“The portrait should look alive; it should touch viewers’ emotions. This is the miracle of the portrait, this is what we’re looking for in portraiture,” says Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan.

While a photo most often captures a snapshot of someone’s life, a painting acquires a life of its own, reflecting the personality of both the painter and the subject, she explains.

Painting Kuzmenko

Humbled by the mystical nature of composition, both musical and literary, Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan wanted to pay homage to the art form, which is why she painted Kuzmenko.

In the painting, Kuzmenko is seated at the piano, dressed in a long black concert dress, composing. Propped up against the piano is the score for her “Memoriam for the Victims of Chernobyl,” a eulogy to the 1986 Russian nuclear disaster.

Shy, caught up in her world of creativity, the composer does not look up, providing a challenge for the painter.

“You have to take the music from somewhere,” says Kvassetskaia-Tsyglan. “You have to invent something new. It’s like being a radio station—you have to accept some radio signal from space. I have the same feeling about composing. That’s why I chose a composer.”

The Portrait Society’s exhibit is free and open to the public from March 8-April 1.