Artist Statement

Eva McCauley is a painter and printmaker known for her atmospheric, expressive paintings of sky, water and shifting landscapes that explore the passage of time and the transient and ephemeral nature of the spiritual and physical world. She is also a figurative artist, and is fascinated with the human condition, and the fragility of our existence. She divides her time between her studios in Bear River, N.S., and Elmira, Ontario (as well as Co. Kerry, Ireland), painting people and places that are steeped in personal significance.

Her work explores the process of recollection and how we process memories. Her focus is not on the recreation of a specific image or moment, but the creation of something informed by the act of remembering -- an act which renders past experiences as ephemeral, and constantly in flux, resulting in works which perpetually shift, their images lyrical, ghost-like, and ethereal. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her work is included in public collections such as the Nova Scotia Art Bank, UNB Art Centre Permanent Collection, Fredericton, N.B., Ernst & Young Canadian Print Collection, KW Art Gallery, and in Canadian embassies worldwide. She is an art educator, and has been a sessional professor of Fine Art at the University of Waterloo from 2002 to 2020.

Biography

Eva McCauley was born in London, Ontario. She is a painter & printmaker dividing her time between making work in Bear River, N.S. and her studio in Elmira, Ontario. She is also a musician, playing traditional Irish music on fiddle, mandolin and concertina. She studied visual art at the Ontario College of art and Design, receiving an O.C.A.D. diploma in drawing & painting (1983), a B.F.A. from University of Guelph (1994) and a M.F.A. from University of Waterloo (1996).

She has exhibited internationally and nationally, with solo exhibitions at ARTsPLACE Gallery in Annapolis Royal in 2021 (Splendid Isolation), Lucky Rabbit in Annapolis Royal in 2021 (Face to Face), the Rotunda Gallery in Kitchener, ON (Face to Face Project), Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork City, Ireland ("In/Visible", 2010) Limerick Printmakers Gallery, Limerick, Ireland ("In/Visible", 2009); Elora Centre for the Arts (“Solas agus Scath”, 2009); Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery (“Momento Mori”); Open Studio, Toronto (“Ruptured Time”); Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto (“Colour of Memory”, “Mutable as Water”, “Gaze”); the Galérie Père-Léger-Comeau, Université Sainte-Anne, N.S, 2023 (Ruptured Landscapes (Les Paysages Bouleversés) and group exhibitions at Harbinger Gallery, Waterloo (“Figuratively Speaking”); KWAG 2nd Biennale (2005); and the Castellani Museum in Lewiston, N.Y. (“Crossing Borders”). Her work is included in collections in Canadian Embassies all over the world, and is part of a Canadian boxed set collection sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

McCauley is the recipient of many awards and scholarships, including an Arts Nova Scotia Creation Grant (2022), the W.O. Forsythe Painting Award (1983), Bronfman Printmaking Award (1993), Warner Lambert Printmaking Scholarship (1994) "Best in Printmaking Award" at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (1996), "Ernst & Young Purchase Award" (1996), a Canada Council "Quest" Grant for Emerging Artists (2000), as well as several Canada Council and Ontario Council Grants. Her work can be found in many private and public collections such as the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Waterloo Regional Labour Council, and the Ernst & Young Canadian Print Collection.

She is working toward a solo painting exhibition of "Ruptured Landscapes" (Les Paysages Bouleversés) at the Saint John Art Centre, Saint John, N.B. in May/June 2026.