A number of artists and art lovers are flocking back to Silver Star Mountain next weekend for the official opening of Gallery Odin’s annual summer exhibition.
The show, which coincides with the opening of the ski resort for the summer season, features the work of 27 Canadian artists who have been showing with the gallery for several years, as well as two artists new to the gallery.
They include Rosanna Marmont, a young artist whose family lives in Falkland, who apprenticed as a ceramics artist in Saskatchewan and is showing eight of her small ceramic pieces at Odin.
Penticton’s Debby Merkel (no relation to the chancellor of Germany) is an emerging painter who dabbles in colourful abstracts, landscapes and still-lifes.
“It is a pleasure to show these artists, each with their own unique style that delights the visual senses,” said gallery owners Maria and Kal Molnar, who have been travelling all over the province to visit the artists’ studios.
“The exhibition features a variety of styles, mediums, themes, shapes and forms. There are striking multi-layered brilliant acrylics and oils; landscapes that capture the beauty and mystery of nature; bold mixed media abstracts; many coloured Brazilian soapstone, alabaster and jade carvings; one of-a-kind ceramic pieces, and intricate scrimshaws on fossilized mammoth tusks.”
Artists returning to Odin include Vancouver Island landscape artists Peter Lawson and Edward Epp, whose studios are based in Shawnigan Lake; Penticton’s Glenn Clark, known for his hockey portraits, and Karel Doruyter, who is showing his three-dimensional landscapes of the west coast temperate forest.
Coming from the Central Okanagan is the mixed media piece, Ode to Joy, by Oyama’s Julie Elliott, as well as work by Kelowna artists Bonnie Anderson, Dawn Emerson, and Julia Trops, who will have a landscape of Silver Star wildlife on display as well as some of her figurative work.
Vernon’s Destanne Norris is showing her four-by-four foot oil canvas of water lilies, while fellow Vernonite Barry Rafuse is featuring a heavily textured abstract. Local sculptor Deborah Wilson is showing her translucent Italian alabaster celestial bowl and a pair of jade pears on a marble base.
Other artists featured in the exhibition include Leonhard Epp, Lynn Grillmair, Ginny Hall, Corky Hewson, Bob Kingsmill, Jerry Markham, Elizabeth Moore, Jean-Francois Racine, Dana Roman, Al Scott, Todd White, and Charlene Woodbury.
“All visitors should find something captivating in these interesting, eclectic works,” said the Molnars.
Two opening receptions take place Thursday from 6 to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m. Artists will be in attendance and refreshments will be served. The gallery is open Thursday and Saturday through the summer season, from 2 to 6 p.m. or call 250-503-0822 to visit at other times. Gallery Odin is located on the knoll of Silver Star Mountain at 215 Odin Rd.
