Nine paintings of different mediums are hanging up in the South Cariboo Business Centre with the theme to what Leslie Ginther, the Showcase Gallery manager, calls ‘Nocturna’.
In the Spanish language, nocturna is the feminine form of nocturno and translates into nocturne in English.
It’s meaning is ‘relating to the night’ or ‘of the night’.
“For me, post-wildfires, it was almost like there was a healing connotation to it,” said Bobbie Crane, one of the artists about the theme.
Her painting depicts a wolf howling at the moon in a post-fire landscape, without carrying a negative undertone while still following the theme of the show.
Crane has been an artist for 30 years with her main focus being a teacher or leading workshops in Lac la Hache and Williams Lake.
She is also a board member of the 100 Mile Arts Council. She got started in art when a friend encouraged her to join an art class and it got her hooked.
“My favourite part of painting is a therapeutic value of it,” she said.
Another artist in the showcase is Neil Pinkett. His piece is a view from his house.
“I like the arrangement of trees outside my house and with nocturne being the theme it was nice to do something different than I usually do,” he said.
Usually, he works from day-time photographs he takes but he doesn’t have a decent camera enough to take photos at night time. So instead he took a photo during the day with the sun being in roughly the same position the moon is in the painting so the shadows were accurate.
“It was just a slightly different approach to achieve the picture,” he said.
Pinkett has been an artist for ten years, starting with just drawing before he got his hands on some paint. His painting in this exhibit is an acrylic.
There are various mediums of artwork in the showcase from watercolour, acrylic and oil.
Ginther’s is an oil painting, though she said she ventures into all three types, as well as other methods such as pastels.
If anyone is interested in joining the Cariboo Artists Guild they can get ahold of them through the Parkside Gallery.
The showcase will be up until April 2 and each painting is for sale.
“Sometimes patrons of the professional building there will contact the artist and I have sold several paintings through the showcase gallery but most often it is the community that comes in at large and goes ‘I really like that,’ and take down the number and call,” said Crane.
