Artworks Gallery begins the New Year with the feature exhibition

“FIRST IMPRESSIONS” (January 3^rd – February 4^th, 2006)
 

The artist is part of a moving process. The exhibit examines the past year and explores possibilities for the future. The content of the show is vigorous, dynamic and thoughtful reflections and predictions in the new work of our gallery artists.


As a painter of landscape, Vern Simpson observes nature with great care and accuracy. As a Gulf Island resident, he has witnessed a year of extremes “from extreme drought, which ended abruptly with record rainfall in two days, with plants that seemed dead within a few weeks were lush and green.” Simpson’s most recent work echoes this natural cycle of the land, or as the artist states: ”The paintings are a metaphor, growing in an abstracted, textural, layered manner that pays homage to nature and hopefully acts as a conduit to reintroduce the world outside the concrete suburbs.”


As a painter, printmaker, teacher and arts advocate, Debra Van Tuinen's career has spanned 25 years, and her fresh vision and innovative use of materials has been recognized by private, corporate and public collections throughout the United States and Europe. "My art is my life - all that I experience and see becomes part of my work. How I respond physically, spiritually and intellectually to my environment is the essence (the spirit) of my work."

Painter Sharon Quirke is native to Vancouver. Some of Sharon’s favourite contemporary artists are Gathie Falk, Mary Pratt, Greg Murdock and Marcus Bowcott. Giotto, Rembrandt, Mary Cassatt, Paul Klee and Alexander Calder are some old-time favourites. Besides art – tennis, jazz dance, Barbara Kingsolver and Gustav Mahler are some of her other passions.