HALIFAX -- Visitors to Halifax have until the end of February to enjoy a rare retrospective on the artwork of Mary Pratt, one of Canada's finest still-life painters.

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Atlantic Canada's largest art museum, is the final venue for the exhibition, which drew record crowds at galleries in Newfoundland, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Pratt's paintings typically deal with images of domestic life, but the stunning, almost stark realism she brings to simple, everyday objects create what one critic has described as a "sense of wonder and occasional unease."

Her 1999 oil painting "Jelly Shelf," for example, offers nothing more than a realistic close-up of four Mason jars. But the image practically vibrates with religious intensity as sunlight streams through the glass, creating a shimmering iridescence that no photograph could ever convey.

Describing her own work as a "realist painter," Pratt has said: "My only strength is finding something where most people would find nothing."

Sarah Fillmore, chief curator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, says Pratt's work can evoke emotions in a way that can catch viewers off guard.

"Sometimes you get this moment with incredible works of art where it is no longer just a jar of jam -- it becomes something surprising," says Fillmore.

"It becomes a mirror, it becomes a portal. We've watched people walk through (the exhibition) and they experience these beautiful moments, sometimes quite intense and sometimes laced with a bit of pain. These feelings are brought to people through these paintings."

Pratt, originally from New Brunswick, studied under Alex Colville and Lawren Harris at Mount Allison University in Sackville. She married fellow student Christopher Pratt in 1957 and moved with him to rural Newfoundland in 1963.

As her husband's reputation as an artist grew, Mary Pratt focused on raising a family and tending to domestic chores that would eventually become the inspiration for much of her work.

The exhibition in Halifax features 65 paintings spanning almost 50 years of work.

Most of Pratt's paintings explore her obsession with light, and some are remarkable for their almost obsessive level of detail.

"There's layer upon layer of texture, light and surface and complex composition that looks so natural in a glimpse," says Fillmore, referring to the 2001 painting "Jello on a Silver Platter."

"But when you start to unpack them, each one holds so much in that moment."

And yet, many of the paintings leave the viewer with a lingering, subtle sense of unease, says Fillmore, citing the 1983 painting "Child With Two Adults," which shows an infant being bathed in a large bowl.

"There's a foreboding about the scene," she says. "There's a crack in the bowl ... and it seems to suggest there may be a crack in the scene itself."

Similarly, a painting of a young woman in a wedding dress seems, at first, to convey a message of hope, but there is so much more upon closer inspection.

"She is a young, scared-looking girl sitting in a wedding dress that looks to me to be slightly too big for her," says Fillmore. "She seems a little bit unsure of where she is going."

Pratt has referred to this dark theme as a "thread of dread" woven into her work.

The exhibition also features video vignettes, audio recordings and written descriptions of each painting from Pratt.