vision quest
May 7th to June 9th, 2007

In Vancouver’s historic Gastown, landscape painter Vern Simpson is best known for his larger-than-life copper statue of Gassy Jack – the city’s first entrepreneur, a saloon-keeper.

But his oversized canvases filled with vibrant images that capture Canada’s Westcoast aren’t shy of the spotlight either. Detailed strokes of bold colour reminiscent of the great outdoors are a reminder of the beautiful backyards we call home.

Simpson was born in Penticton, BC, the dry sagebrush country of the South Okanagan. After graduating with a double major in painting and graphics at UBC, he toured Europe with a backpack and wood block chisels.

He returned from the Gulf Islands to a home on the White Rock peninsula and a new studio as the base for a 'vision quest' of rediscovery--from the lower mainland, to highlands and dry lands, and to the far side of the Rockies. May 7th and June 9th. Artist talk and painting demo May 12th 2-4pm

Artist Statement

Earth, air, fire and water shape our world, create our environment, working sometimes in harmony, interacting benignly but often struggling one with the other, the only constant being change. Though that change may seem static, in a geologic or cosmic time frame, it evolves at blinding speed, and forms the focus of my painting.

One uniting factor is the human element in my landscape not the pristine wilderness untouched by the hand of man: what draws my interest is the altered landscape, the interface between urban and rural, the process of reclamation where cleared fields return to nature.

My painting is a vision quest growing from the canvas, a painted world that is organic, full of life and vitality, an abstracted expression driven by colour and motion, seeking form beneath the skin. My painting reveals a world in transition, a world that revels in the cycles of life, death, transformation, and change, a painted canvas of colour, movement, and growth, a world where nature is reborn and reclaims. - Vern Simpson

Art Works Gallery is located at 225 Smithe St (corner of Cambie). Gallery hours are Monday to Saturday, 10 to 6. Call 604.688.3301, email info@artworksbc.com or visit www.artworksbc.com for more info.