Theresa MacKnight

Theresa MacKnight is a committed painter led by curiosity and exploration within her practice. She finds direction within a strong sense of place, imagination, and personal history.

Theresa exhibits her work in public and private galleries throughout New Brunswick. She has been the recipient of the Margaret Woodson Nae Mentorship to study painting through the Sheila Hugh MacKay Foundation. She has been the recipient of Arts NB grants and completed several residencies including a summer residency at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton New Brunswick.

In addition to her lifelong painting practice, MacKnight has been an educator and advocate for visual arts in schools and communities. She has taught in public schools and art centers with both youth and adults and worked on various curriculum development and arts advocacy projects.  She has served on boards such as Sunbury Shores Arts & Nature Centre.

Theresa MacKnight holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) and a Bachelor of Education (University of New Brunswick). She now lives and works in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.

ARTIST STATEMENT

In the past year I have been experimenting with working in oil on linen or canvas, mounted on wood substrates. This work is grounded in direct observation but sits in a balance between our human perception, the illusion of a subject, and areas of flatness, texture and abstraction.

I usually work with objects or motifs that are familiar to me, or have some sort of memory or association attached. I sometimes use juxtapositions that have universal or sometimes more pointed meanings which I allow to remain subtle at first glance. I often use table tops and/ or tools as entry points for the viewer. In this way the painting is an invitation to touch or participate with the objects in the imagination.

Is this work a quiet sort of resistance to contemporary life? Perhaps. Painting for me is always an investigation, a problem to solve and a discipline with some kind of honesty. I wish, always, to invite the viewer to participate in the time spent in the making, the decisions made, and questions asked. I want to slow down their looking. In fast paced world taking time has become a sort of rarity. Why leave it behind?

Theresa MacKnight, 2025