When I saw this photo, I had to go to Whitby’s Station Gallery. I love glass; think I must have been a magpie in a previous life.

The gallery is home to a permanent collection of 300 original prints, paintings, sculpture, and mixed media works.  Additionally, several permanent installational pieces were commissioned for the newly built facility into which Station Gallery moved in 2006.

And there’s an exciting new exhibit opening on February 26.

In 2006, Jane Eccles began a series based on painting dresses loaned to her by women who have inspired her. These paintings evoke the stories of the women who once owned the garments, betray their life stories and reflect the souls of their original owners.

In a recent interview for the Toronto Star, she says “I think it’s my life’s work . . I learned that women who wore very feminine little delicate dresses often were tough, the leaders, the ones people depended on to bring the whole together.”

The Star article continues “Invariably the stories behind the dresses were finely nuanced tales of fidelity, denial, self-destruction, illness, strength, and even murder. Eccles wrote them all down to accompany the dresses.”

The Jane Eccles collection opens at the Station Gallery on February 26.

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