What is Home?
What is home? Home is a place of growth, where tradition is fertilized within a physical and psychological environment. The place we grow up, and the friends and family we are surrounded by influences define who we become. Some learn in the context of a nurturing and supportive family, while others are challenged by conflict and adversity. Each situation enables opportunities and the choice to live and grow or give up and fail. Often, it is adversity that is the greatest stimulus for the creative character, and challenges become the ultimate stepping stones to take an artist on an unforgettable journey that they share with others in pictures, and in the many forms of media to be used as a storyboard.
Shelley Batcules, named after the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, is a contemporary Canadian artist, born and raised in the Niagara Region, Ontario. Shelley comes from a rich artistic tradition as her grandmother Frances Scourfield (1915 - 2008) was a prolific oil painter from Reading, England who painted many portraits, horses, and landscapes in the romantic tradition of John Constable (1776 - 1837) which stimulated Shelley’s fascination with painting very early in life. Throughout childhood Shelley spent most of her free time drawing portraits and landscapes further tempting her strong desire to study art formally. Shelley created the family tradition plaque below to commemorate her history, and is available for commissions.
Shelley meetings with Moore at the AGO
A Revelation Story:
Henry Moore and Grandfather Gardiner fought together in the War.
Shelley and Jim co-founded smART scKOOL and formed a community outreach program partnership with the AGO Art Gallery of Ontario where Shelley taught mental health survivors art as therapy.
Shelley spent hours drawing Henry Moore sculptures with participants, always wondering in the back of her mind why she was so drawn to Moore’s captivating large-scale women. One day, while touring the AGO with her mother following a long separation, her mother finally disclosed the story her Great Grandfather fighting alongside the famous sculptor Henry Moore, aged 19, during World War II. Henry Moore returned home, unfortunately Grandfather fell. In 1940, Moore drew the London underground during the blitz. Moore’s “shelter drawings” were recognized as a powerful response to the war, and Moore became the official war artist. Shelley’s drawings are featured in the art section.
Every century experienced a zeitgeist, a significant change in tradition, a big marker of the time, a new age, defined and expressed through the artworks of the day, which had a monumental impact on how society would adjust to change within the social structure and system.
