VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Angela Dillon paints what she loves. Whether she is addressing an important political issue or invoking a memory from her childhood, there is passion in her colors and energy in her brushstrokes.

Dillon will be a featured artist at Canal Street Gallery’s upcoming exhibition, entitled, 7 Women & Bill. The exhibit will run from November 3 until December 1, and will also include art by Gabriela Aramoni, Valentina Atkinson, Bill Cagle, Isabel Gomez Gallardo, Susan Jackson, Nancy Jakubik and Michelle Matthews. The public is invited to an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, November 5.

Dillon says painting and raising animals are what make life worth living. The artist who grew up on a horse farm in Campeche, Mexico, and then traveled around the world, now resides in Houston. Three dogs rule her recently-constructed home; they wander around piles of paintings, art supplies and a collection of colorful momentos of Dillon’s past.

Dillon’s first memory of art is clear – she sat at her desk with her lamp and colored pencils and created her own paper dolls. Her mother told her father, “She’s going to be a seamstress or a textile designer.” Instead, she became a painter influenced by the color and texture of fabrics.

Dillon briefly attended high school in the United States before she returned home to marry. She then traveled alongside her husband, wherever his job required them to go. While in Bogota, she studied art history for three years. She started painting at age 23. When the couple settled in Scotland, she studied at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen where she graduated with honors. When they moved to London, she enrolled as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Art.

After graduating, she exhibited her art in London, while her husband moved to Houston for work. She has exhibited at Beaux Arts, Patton Gallery, 198 Gallery, Atlantis Gallery and the Royal College of Art in London. She has also exhibited in Elektra Gallery in Toronto, McLellan Galleries in Glasgow, the Royal Scottish Academy and Compass Gallery in Scotland.

In 2001, she had a one-woman show in Mexico City entitled Retasso. After the show, she joined her husband in Houston and stopped painting completely. Instead, she worked for awhile at the MFAH. Then, she started buying furniture, painting it and selling it to shops. She was also busy planning the tear-down and rebuilding of their house. Now that the project is finished, and she has her dream home and studio, Dillon has started painting again.

“Sometimes I feel like I chose my love and my life over my career,” Dillon said. The exhibition at Canal Street Gallery will celebrate her reemergence as a painter, or as she says, “It’s me coming full circle -- a rebirth -- but this time with a stronger sense of where I want to go.”

The paintings she will exhibit at Canal Street will be a mix of old and new work. Several of the paintings are inspired by fabrics -- the texture and colors of textiles that she has seen around the world. They are also inspired by the memories of her childhood home in Mexico – the crumbling walls and sand streets, hammocks in the sun and the color of graffiti. She chose works that are bright and vibrant. “The paintings that I am going to show are really a celebration of color and paint,” she said.

About Canal Street Gallery
Located blocks away from Minute Maid Park, this downtown gallery features the original works of its eight board members, as well as rotating work from resident and visiting artists. Canal Street Gallery also serves as a classroom, where current artists share their talents with students. www.canalstreetgallery.com.  713-223-2219.

Pictured:  detail of a work by Angela Dillon. (Full image below).