It may not be the most obvious place to take a nature hike –– indoors though its opulent giant crystal lurking overhead, past the glittering, tiered chandelier, and among people walking around in bathrobes.
But for those wanting to be inspired by nature, a visit to Sparkling Hill Resort may be in order.
The resort, south of Vernon, is currently host to its first art exhibition that features the nature-inspired work of clay sculptor Gale Woodhouse and photographer Buffy Baumbrough.
The exhibit can be found in the resort’s main lounge area, where there are no walls, just a see-through backdrop –– giant windows that glance over the edge of the Commonage, dropping down to Okanagan Lake and extending to the mountains beyond.
“We were happy when we looked at the space, and saw that it was already surrounded by a natural exhibit,” said Baumbrough, who has a science background, but is probably best known to locals as a Vernon city councillor.
“We used the landscape and pulled the outside inside,” added Woodhouse.
The exhibition features Baumbrough’s closely-focused and strongly contrasted shots of local flora interspersed with Woodhouse’s three-dimensional clay sculptures showing natural forms and textures.
Collaboration was inevitable once the women discovered their mutual love of the local, natural environment, and it really came out as they hunted and gathered ideas for their exhibition.
Their purposeful search for a sense of place led them to their own backyards as well as to the grasslands, wetlands and forest around the North Okanagan and the Shuswap.
On their many hikes together –– Baumbrough with camera in hand and her encyclopaedic knowledge of local flora and fauna, and Woodhouse always searching for nature’s form and shape –– the quiet would often erupt when the women spotted something that caught their eye.
“We’d end up on hand and knee foraging the forest floor,” laughed Woodhouse. “Buffy would be naming the wildlife, and I would be saying ‘look, it’s red!’
On one such journey, the women took a day trip to the Adams River.
They arrived just before tens of thousands of visitors flocked to the region to see one of the largest run of salmon to ever end up at the traditional spawning grounds. However, the women didn’t head down to the water, but to the surrounding woods.
“It wouldn’t have mattered if the salmon were there, we saw such amazing lichen and mushrooms,” exclaimed Woodhouse, pointing at one of the photographs on display.
“That’s a seed pod, actually,” laughed Baumbrough, explaining, “Although our training and backgrounds are different, our emotional and natural connection to nature is the same.”
The women met over a year ago when Baumbrough took a course at the Vernon Community Arts Centre (VCAC).
“I was throwing some clay and Gale was hand building a bird bath, and I recognized the shapes she was using in her piece were from nature. I asked her what she was doing, and we got to chatting,” she said.
“It was instant recognition. We had the same passions about the environment, nature and wildlife,” said Woodhouse, who has exhibited her work both locally and in her native England, and last year was the studio artist in residence at the VCAC, where she continues to teach courses.
Although new to exhibiting her work, Baumbrough started focussing her camera early on when a friend handed her a film-loading manual Pentax K-1000 while she was travelling in South America.
“I started playing and had that camera until I started shooting digital,” she said, explaining she now uses PhotoShop to boost contrast and colours, bringing out a pattern or form, while still staying true to the subject.
“I love to go back to my studio and blow up what I’ve shot on the screen… I look at form and patterns in nature that I see through Gale’s eyes as a clay artist. It’s fun to challenge and slightly shift what I am capturing in the photo, but it’s important to remain true to the process.”
In turn, Woodhouse says she hears Baumbrough’s words in her head when she approaches her work.
“We have both learned huge amounts from each other,” she said. “We’re both really attracted to the beauty that surrounds us.”
The exhibition at Sparkling Hill has come to life with the help of B.C.’s 2010 Arts and Legacy Spirit Festival grant, which was divided between five groups though the Arts Council of the North Okanagan.
“We wanted the exhibition to be all in one place, and thought about Sparkling Hill. They’ve been incredibly accommodating and gracious,” said Baumbrough. “And they are open to getting involved with community endeavours.”
“We were willing to be guinea pigs,” added Woodhouse. “We hope this will spark more work with the local arts community and give people a reason to come here and see this amazing space.”
The exhibition continues at the resort until mid-March.
