Like Paddy Mackie did before him, visiting artist Luis Fuentes has been peering through the many windows that rest beneath the chateau-style roof of the Mackie Lake House.
Since arriving at the historic Coldstream mansion with his paints, brushes and camera as the Mackie Lake House Foundation’s latest and first international artist-in-residence, the Peruvian painter’s view through those windows has been pointed towards Kalamalka Lake and the lush, green hillside that surrounds it.
For the past three years, Fuentes has been using windows, and doors, in his artwork as a frame into his perspective – that of looking in and experiencing a new horizon.
“Looking through a window is like coming to a new community… You look through a window and you are looking at something new. You open the window to a new opportunity and experience,” he said.
Fuentes has looked through many windows on his travels around the world. He takes photos of the architecture and landscape in different communities, using the pictures to inform his compositions, which are known for their light and dark contrast.
Although his images are painted from life, they are not exact copies, as Fuentes says he prefers universal themes over specific locations.
“I first like to be involved with a space,” said Fuentes, who started taking photos around the Mackie property on the day he arrived last week. “The second day, we drove around the area to Kelowna. The landscape is very different here. There are so many colours, blues and greens.”
From the southern Peruvian city of Arequipa, Fuentes, usually spends two months of the year travelling and the rest of the year at home, which he shares with his wife, two daughters, 21 and 18, and seven-year-old son. It’s also there where he works in his studio on his paintings – primarily watercolours and oils – that are known for their rich shadows and bright highlights, giving them that illusion of reality.
“Arequipa is where tourists go to acclimatize before going up to the mountains. It has a strong Spanish influence, with missions and churches,” said Fuentes. “There is also lots of light in Arequipa as it has a low rain season. Light and shadows are always present in my city and in my work.”
Although there are not many art galleries in Arequipa, the city is known for its painters, particularly those who work in watercolours. Fuentes attributes this to the dry climate, making it easier to paint in the medium.
Exposed to the world of painting by his uncle, a well known Peruvian artist, Fuentes entered university to pursue a degree in architecture and fine arts, but realized painting was his true vocation and he rededicated his efforts to complete his fine arts training.
He started in watercolours and in 1990, at the age of 21, Fuentes won first prize in the Peruvian National Watercolour Competition, which earned him both recognition and the opportunity to show his work in galleries around the country.
“To get a good reputation in my country, you enter competitions and we have many good watercolour competitions in my city. I started entering them in high school,” said Fuentes.
After painting with the medium for the first 12 years of his career, Fuentes switched to oils.
“I started to travel and was looking for avenues to show my paintings elsewhere. Because there were no art galleries in my city, I went to the U.S. and realized that oils work better as they are easier to transport,” he said. “So I started a process again to learn working with oils. I had to work in a different way than watercolours. With watercolours, you work with lighter colours to darker colours. It is the opposite with oils.”
Fuentes has since shown his work with galleries in Australia, the U.S. and in Ottawa and Montréal, where his sister lives, and says his reason for applying to the Mackie residency was to experience western Canada.
“I had been coming to Canada, but only to the eastern part, and I was thinking about the other part of the country. I was looking for an experience in this area, and Vernon was the start of my adventure in British Columbia,” he said.
Before arriving in the North Okanagan, Fuentes was at a world art fair in Dubai, where independent artists are given the opportunity to show their work to international galleries. As part of his residency at the Mackie House, Fuentes will show the paintings he is currently working on in an exhibition at the Vernon Public Art Gallery.
The exhibition opens Thursday, May 26, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Fuentes will give an artist talk at the gallery, Saturday, May 28 at 11:30 a.m.
