Rain blurs the sharp outlines of a familiar landscape, obscuring the view, washing it clean, allowing us the possibility of seeing it fresh when the air clears.
The light is the thing that fascinates Dr. John Semple, watercolour painter and surgeon. “Its elusive quality can draw you into the landscape in just a matter of seconds,” he says. “I strive to convey that ‘sense of place’ by capturing its fleeting magic.”
Semple trained in medical illustration at the Ontario College of Art and Design (now OCAD University), where he was also awarded an honorary doctorate in June of this year. There was, he says, an emphasis on technique and accurate rendering, which helped his surgical training years later.
“The development of manual dexterity with attention to detail were similar regardless of whether you were holding a scalpel or a paintbrush,” he says.
He is now a reconstructive surgeon at Women’s College Hospital. His work was discovered by Berenson Fine Art gallery owner Emilia Ianeva when she was recovering from breast cancer. She curated and held his first art exhibition, “Portraits of Places,” in 2018.
“My goal is to inspire those who see my work to look more carefully at the world around them, to discover beauty in new places,” he says. “Hopefully, these places may trigger emotions such as longing, nostalgia and a yearning to travel back to somewhere.”
