Ingrid Percy is a visual artist based in Corner Brook, NL. She earned a Diploma in Fine Art (Studio) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Studio) from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, BC in 1995. Percy also graduated with a Master of Fine Arts (Painting) from the University of Victoria in 1997, and is currently studying as a PhD student researching community engagement and experiential learning in post-secondary visual arts programs in Canada, at
the same institution.
Her work has been part of exhibitions at Canada House (Home of the Canadian High Commission in the United Kingdom), the Grenfell Art Gallery and Eastern Edge Gallery in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in PEI to name a few. She has been involved with dozens of group and solo exhibitions, both as an exhibited artist and as a curator. Percy has written for a number of publications and is the recipient of various grants and scholarships, including the Fogo Island Research Fellowship in 2016. She also teaches courses at Memorial University’s Grenfell Campus and at the University of Victoria regularly.
Percy created a new series of six serigraphs, each 22” x 30” on acid-free archival paper, which explores the theme of Flora in Newfoundland and Labrador. Each print in the series consists of a variety of images of plants, derived from her drawings. Of her work, Percy says it is “generally abstract and conceptual,” though she always maintains a representational drawing practice. Percy particularly loves drawing from life, in nature, and has done so on a regular basis during the decade that she has called Newfoundland and Labrador home.
Percy explained her inspiration for the work is tied to her ability to place herself; “Traveling around the world, I always know where I am by looking at the plants around me and under my feet. In Newfoundland and Labrador, walking on Blackhead Trail, on a boardwalk at Cape Spear, or on a gravel logging road in Western Newfoundland, the flora is small, drier, and more yellow-green. Craggy, twisted trees are deep rooted in the rocky terrain, holding on — resilient. Low blueberry bushes, red bunchberries, Pink Lady’s Slipper orchids, pitcher plants, and juniper bushes let me know I am on the most easterly coast of North America, in our province, on this land, in this place.”
Percy hopes the artwork she creates “will symbolize Newfoundland and Labrador, serving as a celebration of place and the people who live here, who are rooted here, who grow, live, and die here.” Symbolically, Percy sees the artworks as “an acknowledgement of beauty and the importance of diversity and difference as well as being a metaphor for survival, resilience, regeneration, place, life, and beauty.”
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G63IbNyWG4