Insight Art Gallery

'Path Thru Paradise-Montague Park', Betsy Fairbrother

This year we are beginning the gallery season with a show entitled “Ten Galiano Women Artists”.  Why, you might wonder, are we showing only women artists in this group show?  That is because, in October, we are showing 10 Galiano Men Artists in a group show.  In my opinion, in the arts, gender has little to do with whether a work of art is interesting, successful, or well-executed.  At the same time, I haven’t seen an exclusively male or female show in a while. Why not do it?  And so, June is the month to see a display of art created by some of the skilled and talented women artists of Galiano. Here are a few tasters of what viewers will see:

'Ceramic Vessel' by Kasumi Lampitoc

We are showing the masterful ceramics of Kasumi Lampitoc, and as she puts it, “My motivations are from nature, simple shapes and forms – subtle lines or accents are enough to finish the piece”.

'Red Field Poppy' by Janice Prevedoros

Janice Prevedoros, as an artist and gardener, appreciates the wide spectrum of plants which can be grown on the islands, and the various hues, leaf shapes and flowers have become part of her artwork; in the series of  botanicals displayed in this show she has created a perpetual season of blooms for the viewer!

'Sterling Silver Deco Lightning Necklace & Earrings' by Anne Kelly

Anne Kelly, a maker of very unique jewellery, is showing work that fuses ancient & 21st century techniques of weaving, forming, and texturing metal with a naturalist’s eye for tendrils, scales, feathers, and intertidal organisms.

'Lighthouse' by Dianne Laronde

Dianne Laronde, is exhibiting her recent paintings, and notes that, “The beauty of the land around us has always been a pleasure to sketch and paint; lately it is the community and the individuals who inhabit these lovely places in which I find inspiration”.  Betsy Fairbrother is displaying some of her new Galiano landscape paintings which are, “Inspired by the intoxicating visual perfumes of nature, harmonies and rhythms of colour and form”, that surround her, while hoping to capture the spirit and love of place.

'Just Humming Along' by Irene Castor

Irene Castor has been focusing on very light, delicate and transparent watercolours of flowers, trees and buds, in the work for this show.  Chris Gaylor will be showing her hand-woven scarves, in rich colours and fibres, as well as displaying the new, multi-coloured, glass, shell and ceramic mosaic wall pieces she has been creating.

'Leaves, Shells & Buds, Mosaic Mirror' by Chris Gaylor

Strong, colourful pastel drawings of Galiano’s special places are being offered by Annette Shaw who says that, “Even though my art is still in a state of flux, I am rediscovering the joy of simply drawing for the pleasure of it”.

'Laughlin Lake' by Annette Shaw

For Eleanor Coulthard, ‘painting is becoming her retirement career’ – she paints in themes inspired by her travels, working mainly in watercolours and oils.

'Airflow' by Eleanor Coulthard

And finally, Shera Street is sharing with us, her powerful, free flowing paintings, ”For me ‘art’ is an unfolding adventure from the instant paint first hits the canvas. Vibrant colours speak through me, touched with a connection of spirit”.

'Dancer's Joy, Part 1', by Shera Street

This offering of artwork from ten different Galiano Women Artists promises to be exciting and visually stimulating.  I plan to take note of how the entire space and energy of the show looks and feels, and then in October, I will stand in the same place again, and see and feel what the Galiano Men Artists have created.  I hope you will join us in this adventure.

Comment

'Spirit Swimmers' by Tish Saunders

This is an interesting show because it spans 15 years of painting.  Included are pieces from shows  I have had through these years, for example,  “‘When the Green Woods Laugh” show from 1996  at the Dandelion Co-op Gallery.  This show was all about Trees – magical, symbolic trees in pastoral,  day or night settings.  The trees represented abundance, love, the softness of night settings,  wisdom and mystery.

'Abundance' by Tish Saunders, 1996

The “Magic Island Show” at Galiano Art Gallery situated at the Galiano Inn was in 2003.  This show was a celebration of this little island of Galiano and island living.  Our unique setting here gives us insights, makes us see connections.  Our whole experience is like living in parentheses (our rock) surrounded, in every direction, by the sea or sky.  The paintings look at an island in the dawn, or in the midst of a storm, or in a state of sleep or harmony or as a symbol of a metaphysical reality.

'Passage Westward' by Tish Saunders, 2003

“Life of the Ponds”,  which was the opening show for Insight Art Gallery in August 2005,  was a show I really enjoyed painting.  I spent many hours observing the pond life – the gold fish, the dragon flies, the way the sun’s rays penetrated the pond’s surface and refracted through the water.  In this show I wanted to paint some very large pieces in order to really use the big walls the gallery provided.

'Life of the Pond' by Tish Saunders, 2005

In this present show, I’ve included some pieces from “Cosmic Colour”, a show all about prismic colour in 2006.

“My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!”
-William Wordsworth

Wordsworth says it – the colours of the rainbow lift our spirits!  The power of colour and light affects a person’s state of mind and health.  My continuing colour explorations have shown me that colours can have a positive effect on your outlook and your health. My paintings for this show were mainly abstract colour studies and the colours just sang out beautifully.  Below is an example of one painting using one simple hue in a powerful way.

'Prayer of Healing' by Tish Saunders, 2006

In 2010 I had a show entitled ‘Sacred Geometry’.  I had been painting some mandalas beginning in 2005, and in this show there were many beautiful mandalas.  Over the years, the mandalas have been very popular and there are only a couple that are still available for sale.

'Revealing Process Mandala' by Tish Saunders, 2008

'Daisy Delights Mandala' by Tish Saunders, 2010

I hope that this show and all of the pieces on display are enjoyed by viewers.  Its really been fun for me to assemble pieces from 15 years of painting and see them all hanging together.  There is a distinctive thread running through all of the work, and this reminds me of comments made to me by long-time viewers of my paintings – they often say that my approach can be so different in every show, but they can always tell its my work.

Comment

'Deneb' (Detail) by Francine Renaud

This little Island in the Salish Sea tucked away with its neighbors along a huge island, not too far from Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle, is the home of so many creative people.   Perhaps it has Magic!!   Perhaps we recognize somewhere deep, deep in our bones, the Magic of the Original Garden.  In this Garden there is Beauty, and there are Fauna, Flora and People from times immemorial.

Perhaps the Magic gets stronger when we call places by their original names…

like, “the Salish Sea”.

'Through the Grasses' by Francine Renaud

Our little island has inspired many of it’s people to capture it’s magic and bring it to reflect in paintings, music, plays and stories, to share it’s essence with the whole world.  But first of all, it’s for us who live here and visit, to discover and realize this. Galiano’s many realms have that certain quality that takes us to another level – where time stops and we feel so alive – our Self expanded out into the landscape.

After a year or so of being part of Island’s Edge Gallery and spending much more time back on the Island, I had the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, acquaintances and to meet new islanders and visitors. I had a chance to observe how the magic of the island transforms the viewer. A most valuable experience!!

Last fall, I was invited to put on a solo show at Insight Art Gallery.  I have been so pleased to have this opportunity – to show in a venue where a body of my work could be seen, in the context of this Island and its artistic tradition!  This seemed to be just right.

'Winter Light' by Francine Renaud

What you will see is my process of integrating this love of place and tradition with seeing fresh.  Seeing fresh means, for me, allowing discovery through my own process and also through the work of my peers in the art community at this time.

Seeing fresh is, perceiving Zeitgeist, the spirit of the time.

Here and Now…..

Wondering why you haven’t seen much of me since the “Mini Show”?

Come and see what this fair month of September has to offer at “Insight.”

Comment

Looking North, Galiano Island by Bruce Dolsen

Over the dreary, rainy months of the past winter, I turned for inspiration to my sketch books and watercolours from Galiano and from years past, some of them from my travels. I found new inspiration in looking at these images, and found new life in them as I re-worked them in larger formats in acrylic. In doing so, I was struck by the notion that, while I was revising the image, I was in fact “re-visioning” the experience, and that “re-visioning” is what happens in image making anyway: whatever the subject matter happens to be, the resulting image is strictly a personal expression of experiencing it. Painting and image making are processes calling for vision, to begin with, and envisioning in order for the image to manifest itself.

'Periwinkles' by Bruce Dolsen

Once the light returned and the rain stopped, I could again visit favorite locations, and I once again found the familiar rocks and forests, the trails and winding roads, the changing sea and sky, and the blossoming earth were sources of inspiration—and of new vision. I worked outdoors, sketching and laying out paintings, but also taking reference photos with which to return to the studio to let the painting happen. To my eye, the photos are never as interesting (or real?) as the “revisioned” image that emerges, and I think that has something to do with the way we see, as opposed to the image a fixed lens presents: our eyes are constantly moving, creating composite images which our brain interprets as one seamless experience. By contrast, a camera’s fixed lens gives only one impression, a fixed blink at the world, and while the camera has undeniable advantages and creative possibilities, the composite image we carry around in our heads is the impression that lasts.

'Looking South to Ruxton Island' by Bruce Dolsen

On another note, during the opening weekend of my exhibition, my wife Marian will be doing a very special draw.  In September she is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, in Africa, to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society (her mother has Alzheimer’s).  She has to raise $10,000. for the climb and has been licensed to sell raffle tickets for 3 woven ‘Forget-me-not’ Scarves she has made.  The draw is taking place at Insight Gallery on July 31 at 3:00 p.m.  Marian will be selling the tickets at all the various venues, including a table outside of the Market.

'Poppies #1' by Bruce Dolsen

Comment

'Path at the Bluff' by Betsy Fairbrother

“As a respectful & vigilant observer, I continue to be inspired by the intoxicating visual perfumes of nature, harmonies, rhythms of colour and form that surround me.   When I approach every blank canvas, I see it as a beginning of a new relationship with the end result feeling like a child of my imagination.

'Cabin in the Glen' by Betsy Fairbrother

This past year, my eyes have been drawn to the idyllic quality of the many landscapes on island, those lovely walks, and vistas intrinsic to the island spirit.   In my landscapes, I mostly work from memory, hoping to capture the spirit and love of place.

'In the Field' by Betsy Fairbrother

I have also thoroughly enjoyed exploring the human form, by playing with images of my shadow infused with colour and my garden statues that grace and guard my inner sanctum”.

'Cupid Amidst Flowers' by Betsy Fairbrother

Comment

'Paternity Analysis' by Sam Hesse

‘ECLECTICA’, this year’s Opening Show, is an exciting, eclectic mix of sculpture, painting, photography, glass art, and more, all in a furnished setting with home decor items for sale. Featuring some inspired and skilled new artists to the island, the gallery will also show an outstanding mineral display for the viewer’s pleasure. Come and explore many beautiful offerings in a visually stimulating environment.

'Pomegranate' by Bruce Dolsen

Comment

Betsy Fairbrother, Artist Statement

My life has always been defined through artistic pursuits. After many years immersed in the world of dance, I began to explore painting as a creative release. I started with small watercolours while living in Mexico in the 80′s, and have since experimented with enamel on wood, oil pastels and collage.

‘Buddha’ by Betsy Fairbrother

Last winter I was determined to complete a series of paintings I had started over 10 years ago. The series,”Women & Roses Dream”, developed from some collage work I had done, combining images of iconic women, within a dreamlike world. I picked up my brush and quickly immersed into a lovely creative bubble where everything else seemed secondary. I found myself losing track of time as I embraced the dance of the brush on canvas and the intense concentration and observation of the subject at hand.   After completing these pieces,  I continued to be inspired to paint, first and foremost by my immediate environment, with colour and form that bring joy to the eye. As I go about my day, my eye often acts as a camera lens, looking about my surroundings for images that compel me to paint.

‘Women and Roses #1 (Detail)’ by Betsy Fairbrother

I continue to develop my own personal style, and I have found the process of painting has illuminated my world in every way.  My daily walks are filled with more colour, texture, light and shadow.  As I gaze at life around me, I feel in awe and inspired by natures’ exquisite designs. My sincere hope is that my paintings reflect the joy I feel when I paint.

“May the eye of the artists remain in the soul of the viewer.”

‘Tulips’ by Betsy Fairbrother

Nancy McPhee   ‘Bridge over Time’

The collection of paintings gathered together for this show span many years of experimenting and revelling in the mystery of creating art. These paintings represent the bridge that connects the past years of my artistic journey to the present.

‘Smilkameen Valley’ by Nancy McPhee

I am inspired by landscapes. Sometimes it is the memory of the light on the hills, the sound of the wind or the smell of nature that I strive to capture. Sometimes it is a phrase, a line of poetry, or a piece of music that is my muse. Whatever it might be, I love to capture the magic of my experience in art. My mediums vary though I tend to paint with acrylic and often add other elements that interest me.

‘Beyond the Milky Way, 1, Emergence’ by Nancy McPhee

In the early paintings, I experimented with a technique that I learned out of a book by Maxine Masterfield. Surprised and pleased with the images that emerged, I played with the combination of inks, watercolours and texture. The Winter Series evolved from my first visits to Galiano and I use shells, sticks and leaves found on nature rambles to create the texture in the paintings.

For the past few years I have been interested in the idea of change and transition and this is reflected in my newer work. The paintings are an exploration of edges, known and unknown through doorways. The most recent work focuses on a question about what connects the past to the future, what is known and unknown. Using a glazing technique with acrylic paint, the textured ground is broken into two definite areas joined by the transition of an edge – both areas are a mystery of memory. The viewer will see what they see in these landscapes. I hope you enjoy them.

‘Strange Attractor’ by Nancy McPhee

Comment

“Burrill Road, September” by Bruce Dolsen

The crook of an elbow, the branch of a tree, the pattern on a dragonfly’s wing;
The elegant curve of a deer’s rib bone, the arching arbutus tree;
Rivulets of a receding tide, the slow course of cedar root through rock and earth;
The dome of a skull, a cumulous cloud;
The pitch of a roof, a limpet shell, the angle of the shadow at noon;
Light slanting through trees at 4 o’clock in February;
Light on the table at noon, light on the water of the bay,
Light refracting in a raindrop, a spider’s fine delineation of space;
The laughter of children, the kingfisher’s call, the raven’s talk,
The bumblebee at work;
The smell of coffee in the morning, of the road after rain,
Of leaves mouldering, of the sea, of the sea, of the sea;
Wisteria in clusters, curling smoke from the fire, the progress of
A pen across a page, of a brush following shape after shape;
Conglomerate rock—ancient stories fused together—
Now mountains, now pebbles, now grains of sand;
Boulders setting off on long, slow journeys to the sea;
Logs on a beach, a tangle of limbs, a drawer full of socks;
The geography of form, the taxonomy of self, the space of being
At the edge of light where in the dark invisible lines connect
Distant stars with names and stories we give them: what we see
And do not see; what we know and cannot know;
What we are given, and cannot have;
What we are, this momentary being,
This single note, this symphony of senses—
What fine music its turning makes.

‘Still Life with Oranges’ by Bruce Dolsen

When I think and write about what I do as an artist, I think in images, in sense impressions, and sometimes words seem a long way off. Sometimes it is only after I have finished a painting that I really begin to see it, or to see into it, and more often than not, I find the painting tells a story of its own, and that I have been the instrument of its telling–not so much the creator as the medium. The amazing correspondences of form in nature present themselves to us endlessly, and we take so much for granted about what constitutes beauty, what appeals to the eye, the senses—and why. Sometimes we see but do not see.

Why is a gladiolus like an oyster shell? This question may be of the order that plagued Alice in her hellish wonderland, where sense was made nonsense, where there was no intended answer as to why a raven is like a writing desk. But the ruffled flutes of the oyster’s hard shells, so beautifully matched all ‘round the edge, are echoed in the frilly edges of the flower’s delicate form which unfolded but once in impossible complexity and for no purpose other than to reproduce itself. What delights us is the recognition of form: something is beautiful because….because….because….? Because it is like something else we know, because it is both novel and familiar, and because we have been led to see the familiar in a new way. As an artist, I call this experience “Looking to learn and learning to look”, my own way of making sense of why I am so compelled to do what I do.

I have given the title “Water, Wood, Stone and Bone” to this show’s work, representing more than a year’s painting in watercolour and acrylic, mostly on or about Galiano. As well as the paintings, I’ve included a number of “assemblages” (or whatever they should be called!) which evolved over the winter and spring from the objets trouves–bits and pieces and dead insects I tend to accumulate all the time. The small paintings attached to the these pieces are intended to reflect in some sense the form or essence of what’s in the box; as in viewing a constellation where we imagine we see forms in what are really disparate, unconnected dots of light, the connections are there to be made by individual viewers.

‘White Shell Beach, Montague’ by Bruce Dolsen

When I first started painting on Galiano I was intrigued by the animal trails in the forest, and by human trails, some of which have been trodden for hundreds of years. And then by the roads: they twist around shorelines, disappearing around corners and over hill tops, bracketed by walls of green and gold, through which we glimpse the sea, the changing light. The roads have served as conduits for our industry, and I find on the acre or so where we live the remains of this activity from fifty years before: clumps of glass bottles, rusted out oil cans, car parts, bed springs, all covering over in moss and new growth. And while I may despair in this culturally modified forest and the story it tells, I am in awe of the middens that ring this island, and the story they tell of many hundreds of years of habitation.

Yet they have a certain beauty, these cast-offs: they tell us a familiar story, one of process and change and renewal, these roads that disappear around corners, these bones that once walked where we walk, these stones. The artist is sometimes the one to tell the story—the medium with the message—and the story is often as simple as a fleeting impression of light on a form, a once-upon-a-time in the blink of an eye when the moment is connected to something beyond immediate experience, something startlingly beautiful in the way a crow walks, a cloud moves, a leaf falls. As I say in the poem, what fine music it makes.

I’m still looking to learn from all this.

Comment

Spirals of Change-Strong Foundations by Tish Saunders

Sacred Geometry by Tish Saunders

Through time it has become increasingly important to paint what ‘matters’ to me – to focus on love, light and colour. This year I was really on the ‘painting train’ and from June to July I often painted 7 or 8 hours a day. It was glorious! The rain pattered on the roof, the woodstove glowed, the music was good and there were no intrusions.

Painting a mandala is a beautiful experience. I start by making intuitive decisions regarding the imagery and colour that I will use. The repetition of the shapes and symbols causes new patterns to emerge. Combinations of strokes of colours on other colours cause energy to begin to move and this is read by the eye and the mind with exciting results. I am really interested in what happens on the surface of the canvas in these paintings – there is no room for indecision or re-working. The strokes of colour are decisive; the surface receives paint, and is then overlaid with more paint. I have one chance to put it on and make it work. The process is clean and pure and the results sing to me, as they have been laid down with a one-pointed mind and clear intent.

I began working on one small canvas where I started with one stroke of colour in the centre then added another stroke of a newly mixed colour to it, then did it again and again. A multicoloured spiral formed – every colour in it was freshly mixed, stroke after stroke. The entire painting was vibrant, the spiral was moving, and the spaces between the colours were creating their own patterns. I did another painting with a similar approach. It was so enjoyable to paint this way. Then I moved to very abstract symbolic landscapes. I did an underpainting, and then laid large strokes of contrasting colour on top. It came alive! It was time to make a mandala using this technique of colour strokes or tiles on underpainting. I did this, and then continued using the technique for other paintings.

Recently, I was preparing my show mail out at the gallery. I finally showed my work to someone other than my family – it was the mandala called ‘Spirals of Change/Strong Foundations Mandala’ that is on the postcard mail out. She remarked immediately that she knew a bit about sacred geometry. In the study of art history I had run into that term regarding the design of places of worship or sacred monuments related to religious belief. ‘Divine proportions’ and the ‘golden ratio’ were used and recognized by many of the ancient cultures. Later, I googled sacred geometry and discovered how widespread the study is. Prevalent forms that appear in nature like the sphere, fractals, sine waves, the four-dimensional cube and the spiral are all part of this geometry that is considered sacred because it arises directly from natural principles. It is believed that these archetypes and icons of geometry are ‘perfect and timeless and arise from God Mind and are the master plan of the universe’.

I discovered the term ‘tessellations’ which refers to a ‘tiling of the plane which fills it with no overlaps or gaps’. Think of honeycomb. In Latin, ‘tessella’ is a small cubical piece of clay, stone or glass used to make mosaics. Wow! I realized that my small strokes of colour on underpainting could be called tessellations.

I believe that the energy you give a painting when you create it, stays with the painting always. All of the painter’s decisions and energies at the moment of creation radiate out to the viewer and can be read and received, and can affect or transform. I hope that my beautiful experience of painting this winter will warm the hearts of those who view them.

Comment

‘Study for a Painting Large Enough to be Seen From Space’, A.J. Bell

‘INTERFACES:

New works by ajbell

Shorelines. The margin between the pasture and the forest proper. The horizon, a line demarcating the change from the earth to the sky. Territorial boundaries acting as frontiers drawing a line between ostensibly radical differences between people. My space, your space. Inside, outside. Perception and reality. All these interfaces are thin, permeable, fractal, conditional. Smuggled over.

Our belief in borders being hard and immutable is merely an illusory product of our need to make sense of and manipulate reality – but in order to accomplish this need, unfortunately, we only have the use of a tool with limited perceptual abilities, the intellectual brain, with which to do our analysis and from which to tell our significant stories. Reality is far too complex for any of us to have a true and total sense of it.

In my paintings, I am interested in exploring the limits of our brains’ capacity to convince ourselves that we are seeing hard, concrete realities when, at a fundamental level, everything bleeds into everything else. Edges are not solidly demarcated. Nothing is the same from one second to the next. Everything mutates. We all learn and thereby change. And yet, the brain takes the limited amount that can be seen and tries to force these error prone perceptions into fixed ideas concerning reality. Is there a point at which the intellectual brain gives up and learns to love the reality of overwhelming complexity? In my abstract paintings I am trying to show how things transform, but more importantly, I am trying to show how our brains function. I try to do this by 1) reducing the symbolic content available to the eye and by 2) reducing, to a bare minimum, the standard indicators of ‘object’ from the picture plane. In effect I am trying to elicit from the viewer an emotional reaction to raw stuff without allowing the viewer to engage the fallible crutch of personally significant narration.

Comment