The theme for the new Showcase Gallery exhibit, which went up on Dec. 4 is Trees and, as a group exhibit, features works by a number of different artists.
“I thought it was a very diverse theme that each artist could create a multitude of different paintings with it,” says Bobbie Crane, one of the artists who contributed a painting.
“They could be winter scenes, spring scenes, any season actually.”
Usually, they have more of a Christmas theme but said that Trees was really good.
“Some of them are winter, some of them have birds and animals in them so I think it was a really diverse theme.”
Crane herself contributed a painting of a dead tree with a northern goshawk on it.
“I took the picture when we were up in a little lake called Snafu which is on the Atlin Highway… while we were kayaking and then I came home and painted it.”
Crane says they’re a very diverse group of artists.
“We come up with some amazing artwork. I’ve never been involved with a group that is so talented and very, very diverse and we all really feed off of each other’s energy which is really very cool.”
Katalin Kovacs contributed a pastel painting.
“One of my favourite mediums is pastel, soft pastel,” she says. “When we have a theme work, I always go on the computer and search about the theme.”
Trees are very important for us, she says, because they make lots of oxygen.
Susan Kruse chose to depict some of the burned trees near the Canim Lake intersection.
“One day I drove by there and there was a beautiful sunset and I thought, ‘you know what, even trees that have been burned are beautiful.”
Kruse painted from memory and then added a little bit of snow because it needed a little blue in the foreground, she says.
“I like it, I think the light and dark work well together.”
She says the themes help the artist try things that they might not normally try.
Barb McClusky painted an acrylic called in the Aspen.
“I was walking around the 108 Lake in the fall and I saw a group of aspens and thought they were beautiful and painted it.”
She usually paints flowers and said this was one of her first ventures away from flowers.
“I also do some abstract work as well but this is my first real try at doing trees. So the theme was very challenging and it was great to be challenged by it.”
McClusky says she was pleased with it.
Penny Bailey contributed a small impressionistic painting from along a path.
“We moved here about a year ago and came from Kitimat and so there’s a lot of walking and biking trails around the river.”
She said she was also new to trees.
“I mainly paint figures and animals and still life so this was a challenge but it was fun.”
She loves acrylic because you can rework it, which she did one this, she says.
