Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Visual Arts Students from Penticton, Princess Margaret and Summerland Secondary School

Project Room

The title we have chosen for this show pretty well sums up the day to day activity in the art room; an often loud beehive of activity with students going madly off in all directions. For many, this seemingly disorganized scenario is not the standard for learning but it is from this energy that so many creative works emerge. The latest document from the Ministry of Education touts the merits of individualized learning and student-focused learning. This is nothing new in the art room. As I repeat numerous times to students; I may be presenting a project to the group but the results are all individual. The creative voice does not come from prescribed learning outcomes or prepackaged lessons; it comes from the opportunity to play, experiment and express.

This year our school purchased a number of IPads for teachers and students to experiment with. As with any technology, it does not replace the act of creating but complements the creative process. Students have used  the applications for research in the “Dinner with …”  project but we have  also used different apps for developing imagery. Students, of course, embrace technology as a matter of daily life but to direct it in a creative way is often new to them. The kaleidoscope paintings and the large charcoal drawings had them compose using the IPad and from that image they created a new artwork.

My basic philosophy is, and has been for 20 years as an art teacher, that it is opportunity that gives us permission to be the best we can be. Providing an array of approaches to art-making gives students that opportunity to try different media and techniques. As the old Buddhist proverb goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. ” ~ Dawn Richards, Penticton Secondary School

Prepare yourself for anything.  A trip to the circus will most certainly offer a wide variety of talent ranging from daring displays of balance on the high wire to unique clown performers who leave the old and young rolling in the aisles with laughter.  The circus is a forum for diversity.  It promotes talented individuals with a wide range of skills and abilities.  When the show is over, the performers and their props all pack up to move on to the next audience.

In many ways the visual art world serves a similar function. Artists are those quirky folks with unique abilities who create for their own personal satisfaction, as well as allowing their audience an opportunity to see the world through their eyes.  The public and private galleries are a forum to display the wide range of artists who exist in society.  When a show comes down, one can rest assured that the artist is busy in their studio preparing for their next visual event.

I have been teaching visual art to students ranging from grades 9 to 12 for the past fifteen years.  The room I teach in allows me a forum like the circus and art gallery to entertain young people about the importance of being an individual in this world.  The materials we manipulate often reflect the diverse approaches we all can take when creating art.  The art room is a place to celebrate triumphs and failure.  The process of creating should allow room for joy and frustration.  Unlike the circus and gallery, the process of making art never ends.  It is my hope that students discover that learning to be creative is an event that hopefully never just stops.  There is always room to grow and learn from the old as we move forward to new challenges.  ~ Brad Gibson, Princess Margaret Secondary School
Art and creativity are critical components in the development of every child and they permeate every aspect of human existence. Exhibitions such as these are vital as they serve to validate the importance of creativity in education and in life. A visual arts education helps students develop a higher order of thinking through creativity, critical thinking and the ability to pose and solve problems. Through this process they also gain an understanding of self-discipline and increased self-confidence. Albert Einstein once famously stated that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Years of research show that an arts education is closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity. A 2005 report by the Rand Corporation about the visual arts argues that the intrinsic pleasures and stimulation of the art experience do more than sweeten an individual's life, it "can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing," creating the foundation to forge social bonds and community cohesion. And strong arts programming in schools helps close a gap that has left many a child behind: From Mozart for babies to tutus for toddlers to family trips to the museum, the children of affluent, aspiring parents generally get exposed to the arts whether or not public schools provide them. Low-income children, often, do not. "Arts education enables those children from a financially challenged background to have a more level playing field with children who have had those enrichment experiences,'' says Eric Cooper, president and founder of the  National Urban Alliance for Effective Education.

Thanks as always to the students for sharing their creativity and to their teachers, Brad Gibson from Princess Margaret Secondary, Donna Cowles of Summerland Secondary and Dawn Richards from Penticton Secondary School. It’s due to the commitment, passion and dedication of teachers such as these that students are able to reach outside of themselves and challenge the way they see and interact with the world around them. While the majority of these students will not pursue a career in the arts, they have all been given the gift of creative thinking which will manifest itself in ways yet unknown for the rest of their lives

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Visual Arts Students from Penticton, Princess Margaret and Summerland Secondary School

Project Room

The title we have chosen for this show pretty well sums up the day to day activity in the art room; an often loud beehive of activity with students going madly off in all directions. For many, this seemingly disorganized scenario is not the standard for learning but it is from this energy that so many creative works emerge. The latest document from the Ministry of Education touts the merits of individualized learning and student-focused learning. This is nothing new in the art room. As I repeat numerous times to students; I may be presenting a project to the group but the results are all individual. The creative voice does not come from prescribed learning outcomes or prepackaged lessons; it comes from the opportunity to play, experiment and express.

This year our school purchased a number of IPads for teachers and students to experiment with. As with any technology, it does not replace the act of creating but complements the creative process. Students have used  the applications for research in the “Dinner with …”  project but we have  also used different apps for developing imagery. Students, of course, embrace technology as a matter of daily life but to direct it in a creative way is often new to them. The kaleidoscope paintings and the large charcoal drawings had them compose using the IPad and from that image they created a new artwork.

My basic philosophy is, and has been for 20 years as an art teacher, that it is opportunity that gives us permission to be the best we can be. Providing an array of approaches to art-making gives students that opportunity to try different media and techniques. As the old Buddhist proverb goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. ” ~ Dawn Richards, Penticton Secondary School

Prepare yourself for anything.  A trip to the circus will most certainly offer a wide variety of talent ranging from daring displays of balance on the high wire to unique clown performers who leave the old and young rolling in the aisles with laughter.  The circus is a forum for diversity.  It promotes talented individuals with a wide range of skills and abilities.  When the show is over, the performers and their props all pack up to move on to the next audience.

In many ways the visual art world serves a similar function. Artists are those quirky folks with unique abilities who create for their own personal satisfaction, as well as allowing their audience an opportunity to see the world through their eyes.  The public and private galleries are a forum to display the wide range of artists who exist in society.  When a show comes down, one can rest assured that the artist is busy in their studio preparing for their next visual event.

I have been teaching visual art to students ranging from grades 9 to 12 for the past fifteen years.  The room I teach in allows me a forum like the circus and art gallery to entertain young people about the importance of being an individual in this world.  The materials we manipulate often reflect the diverse approaches we all can take when creating art.  The art room is a place to celebrate triumphs and failure.  The process of creating should allow room for joy and frustration.  Unlike the circus and gallery, the process of making art never ends.  It is my hope that students discover that learning to be creative is an event that hopefully never just stops.  There is always room to grow and learn from the old as we move forward to new challenges.  ~ Brad Gibson, Princess Margaret Secondary School
Art and creativity are critical components in the development of every child and they permeate every aspect of human existence. Exhibitions such as these are vital as they serve to validate the importance of creativity in education and in life. A visual arts education helps students develop a higher order of thinking through creativity, critical thinking and the ability to pose and solve problems. Through this process they also gain an understanding of self-discipline and increased self-confidence. Albert Einstein once famously stated that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Years of research show that an arts education is closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity. A 2005 report by the Rand Corporation about the visual arts argues that the intrinsic pleasures and stimulation of the art experience do more than sweeten an individual's life, it "can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing," creating the foundation to forge social bonds and community cohesion. And strong arts programming in schools helps close a gap that has left many a child behind: From Mozart for babies to tutus for toddlers to family trips to the museum, the children of affluent, aspiring parents generally get exposed to the arts whether or not public schools provide them. Low-income children, often, do not. "Arts education enables those children from a financially challenged background to have a more level playing field with children who have had those enrichment experiences,'' says Eric Cooper, president and founder of the  National Urban Alliance for Effective Education.

Thanks as always to the students for sharing their creativity and to their teachers, Brad Gibson from Princess Margaret Secondary, Donna Cowles of Summerland Secondary and Dawn Richards from Penticton Secondary School. It’s due to the commitment, passion and dedication of teachers such as these that students are able to reach outside of themselves and challenge the way they see and interact with the world around them. While the majority of these students will not pursue a career in the arts, they have all been given the gift of creative thinking which will manifest itself in ways yet unknown for the rest of their lives

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Visual Arts Students from Penticton, Princess Margaret and Summerland Secondary School

Project Room

The title we have chosen for this show pretty well sums up the day to day activity in the art room; an often loud beehive of activity with students going madly off in all directions. For many, this seemingly disorganized scenario is not the standard for learning but it is from this energy that so many creative works emerge. The latest document from the Ministry of Education touts the merits of individualized learning and student-focused learning. This is nothing new in the art room. As I repeat numerous times to students; I may be presenting a project to the group but the results are all individual. The creative voice does not come from prescribed learning outcomes or prepackaged lessons; it comes from the opportunity to play, experiment and express.

This year our school purchased a number of IPads for teachers and students to experiment with. As with any technology, it does not replace the act of creating but complements the creative process. Students have used  the applications for research in the “Dinner with …”  project but we have  also used different apps for developing imagery. Students, of course, embrace technology as a matter of daily life but to direct it in a creative way is often new to them. The kaleidoscope paintings and the large charcoal drawings had them compose using the IPad and from that image they created a new artwork.

My basic philosophy is, and has been for 20 years as an art teacher, that it is opportunity that gives us permission to be the best we can be. Providing an array of approaches to art-making gives students that opportunity to try different media and techniques. As the old Buddhist proverb goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. ” ~ Dawn Richards, Penticton Secondary School

Prepare yourself for anything.  A trip to the circus will most certainly offer a wide variety of talent ranging from daring displays of balance on the high wire to unique clown performers who leave the old and young rolling in the aisles with laughter.  The circus is a forum for diversity.  It promotes talented individuals with a wide range of skills and abilities.  When the show is over, the performers and their props all pack up to move on to the next audience.

In many ways the visual art world serves a similar function. Artists are those quirky folks with unique abilities who create for their own personal satisfaction, as well as allowing their audience an opportunity to see the world through their eyes.  The public and private galleries are a forum to display the wide range of artists who exist in society.  When a show comes down, one can rest assured that the artist is busy in their studio preparing for their next visual event.

I have been teaching visual art to students ranging from grades 9 to 12 for the past fifteen years.  The room I teach in allows me a forum like the circus and art gallery to entertain young people about the importance of being an individual in this world.  The materials we manipulate often reflect the diverse approaches we all can take when creating art.  The art room is a place to celebrate triumphs and failure.  The process of creating should allow room for joy and frustration.  Unlike the circus and gallery, the process of making art never ends.  It is my hope that students discover that learning to be creative is an event that hopefully never just stops.  There is always room to grow and learn from the old as we move forward to new challenges.  ~ Brad Gibson, Princess Margaret Secondary School
Art and creativity are critical components in the development of every child and they permeate every aspect of human existence. Exhibitions such as these are vital as they serve to validate the importance of creativity in education and in life. A visual arts education helps students develop a higher order of thinking through creativity, critical thinking and the ability to pose and solve problems. Through this process they also gain an understanding of self-discipline and increased self-confidence. Albert Einstein once famously stated that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Years of research show that an arts education is closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity. A 2005 report by the Rand Corporation about the visual arts argues that the intrinsic pleasures and stimulation of the art experience do more than sweeten an individual's life, it "can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing," creating the foundation to forge social bonds and community cohesion. And strong arts programming in schools helps close a gap that has left many a child behind: From Mozart for babies to tutus for toddlers to family trips to the museum, the children of affluent, aspiring parents generally get exposed to the arts whether or not public schools provide them. Low-income children, often, do not. "Arts education enables those children from a financially challenged background to have a more level playing field with children who have had those enrichment experiences,'' says Eric Cooper, president and founder of the  National Urban Alliance for Effective Education.

Thanks as always to the students for sharing their creativity and to their teachers, Brad Gibson from Princess Margaret Secondary, Donna Cowles of Summerland Secondary and Dawn Richards from Penticton Secondary School. It’s due to the commitment, passion and dedication of teachers such as these that students are able to reach outside of themselves and challenge the way they see and interact with the world around them. While the majority of these students will not pursue a career in the arts, they have all been given the gift of creative thinking which will manifest itself in ways yet unknown for the rest of their lives

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Visual Arts Students from Penticton, Princess Margaret and Summerland Secondary School

Project Room

The title we have chosen for this show pretty well sums up the day to day activity in the art room; an often loud beehive of activity with students going madly off in all directions. For many, this seemingly disorganized scenario is not the standard for learning but it is from this energy that so many creative works emerge. The latest document from the Ministry of Education touts the merits of individualized learning and student-focused learning. This is nothing new in the art room. As I repeat numerous times to students; I may be presenting a project to the group but the results are all individual. The creative voice does not come from prescribed learning outcomes or prepackaged lessons; it comes from the opportunity to play, experiment and express.

This year our school purchased a number of IPads for teachers and students to experiment with. As with any technology, it does not replace the act of creating but complements the creative process. Students have used  the applications for research in the “Dinner with …”  project but we have  also used different apps for developing imagery. Students, of course, embrace technology as a matter of daily life but to direct it in a creative way is often new to them. The kaleidoscope paintings and the large charcoal drawings had them compose using the IPad and from that image they created a new artwork.

My basic philosophy is, and has been for 20 years as an art teacher, that it is opportunity that gives us permission to be the best we can be. Providing an array of approaches to art-making gives students that opportunity to try different media and techniques. As the old Buddhist proverb goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. ” ~ Dawn Richards, Penticton Secondary School

Prepare yourself for anything.  A trip to the circus will most certainly offer a wide variety of talent ranging from daring displays of balance on the high wire to unique clown performers who leave the old and young rolling in the aisles with laughter.  The circus is a forum for diversity.  It promotes talented individuals with a wide range of skills and abilities.  When the show is over, the performers and their props all pack up to move on to the next audience.

In many ways the visual art world serves a similar function. Artists are those quirky folks with unique abilities who create for their own personal satisfaction, as well as allowing their audience an opportunity to see the world through their eyes.  The public and private galleries are a forum to display the wide range of artists who exist in society.  When a show comes down, one can rest assured that the artist is busy in their studio preparing for their next visual event.

I have been teaching visual art to students ranging from grades 9 to 12 for the past fifteen years.  The room I teach in allows me a forum like the circus and art gallery to entertain young people about the importance of being an individual in this world.  The materials we manipulate often reflect the diverse approaches we all can take when creating art.  The art room is a place to celebrate triumphs and failure.  The process of creating should allow room for joy and frustration.  Unlike the circus and gallery, the process of making art never ends.  It is my hope that students discover that learning to be creative is an event that hopefully never just stops.  There is always room to grow and learn from the old as we move forward to new challenges.  ~ Brad Gibson, Princess Margaret Secondary School
Art and creativity are critical components in the development of every child and they permeate every aspect of human existence. Exhibitions such as these are vital as they serve to validate the importance of creativity in education and in life. A visual arts education helps students develop a higher order of thinking through creativity, critical thinking and the ability to pose and solve problems. Through this process they also gain an understanding of self-discipline and increased self-confidence. Albert Einstein once famously stated that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Years of research show that an arts education is closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity. A 2005 report by the Rand Corporation about the visual arts argues that the intrinsic pleasures and stimulation of the art experience do more than sweeten an individual's life, it "can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing," creating the foundation to forge social bonds and community cohesion. And strong arts programming in schools helps close a gap that has left many a child behind: From Mozart for babies to tutus for toddlers to family trips to the museum, the children of affluent, aspiring parents generally get exposed to the arts whether or not public schools provide them. Low-income children, often, do not. "Arts education enables those children from a financially challenged background to have a more level playing field with children who have had those enrichment experiences,'' says Eric Cooper, president and founder of the  National Urban Alliance for Effective Education.

Thanks as always to the students for sharing their creativity and to their teachers, Brad Gibson from Princess Margaret Secondary, Donna Cowles of Summerland Secondary and Dawn Richards from Penticton Secondary School. It’s due to the commitment, passion and dedication of teachers such as these that students are able to reach outside of themselves and challenge the way they see and interact with the world around them. While the majority of these students will not pursue a career in the arts, they have all been given the gift of creative thinking which will manifest itself in ways yet unknown for the rest of their lives

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Visual Arts Students from Penticton, Princess Margaret and Summerland Secondary School

Project Room

The title we have chosen for this show pretty well sums up the day to day activity in the art room; an often loud beehive of activity with students going madly off in all directions. For many, this seemingly disorganized scenario is not the standard for learning but it is from this energy that so many creative works emerge. The latest document from the Ministry of Education touts the merits of individualized learning and student-focused learning. This is nothing new in the art room. As I repeat numerous times to students; I may be presenting a project to the group but the results are all individual. The creative voice does not come from prescribed learning outcomes or prepackaged lessons; it comes from the opportunity to play, experiment and express.

This year our school purchased a number of IPads for teachers and students to experiment with. As with any technology, it does not replace the act of creating but complements the creative process. Students have used  the applications for research in the “Dinner with …”  project but we have  also used different apps for developing imagery. Students, of course, embrace technology as a matter of daily life but to direct it in a creative way is often new to them. The kaleidoscope paintings and the large charcoal drawings had them compose using the IPad and from that image they created a new artwork.

My basic philosophy is, and has been for 20 years as an art teacher, that it is opportunity that gives us permission to be the best we can be. Providing an array of approaches to art-making gives students that opportunity to try different media and techniques. As the old Buddhist proverb goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. ” ~ Dawn Richards, Penticton Secondary School

Prepare yourself for anything.  A trip to the circus will most certainly offer a wide variety of talent ranging from daring displays of balance on the high wire to unique clown performers who leave the old and young rolling in the aisles with laughter.  The circus is a forum for diversity.  It promotes talented individuals with a wide range of skills and abilities.  When the show is over, the performers and their props all pack up to move on to the next audience.

In many ways the visual art world serves a similar function. Artists are those quirky folks with unique abilities who create for their own personal satisfaction, as well as allowing their audience an opportunity to see the world through their eyes.  The public and private galleries are a forum to display the wide range of artists who exist in society.  When a show comes down, one can rest assured that the artist is busy in their studio preparing for their next visual event.

I have been teaching visual art to students ranging from grades 9 to 12 for the past fifteen years.  The room I teach in allows me a forum like the circus and art gallery to entertain young people about the importance of being an individual in this world.  The materials we manipulate often reflect the diverse approaches we all can take when creating art.  The art room is a place to celebrate triumphs and failure.  The process of creating should allow room for joy and frustration.  Unlike the circus and gallery, the process of making art never ends.  It is my hope that students discover that learning to be creative is an event that hopefully never just stops.  There is always room to grow and learn from the old as we move forward to new challenges.  ~ Brad Gibson, Princess Margaret Secondary School
Art and creativity are critical components in the development of every child and they permeate every aspect of human existence. Exhibitions such as these are vital as they serve to validate the importance of creativity in education and in life. A visual arts education helps students develop a higher order of thinking through creativity, critical thinking and the ability to pose and solve problems. Through this process they also gain an understanding of self-discipline and increased self-confidence. Albert Einstein once famously stated that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Years of research show that an arts education is closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity. A 2005 report by the Rand Corporation about the visual arts argues that the intrinsic pleasures and stimulation of the art experience do more than sweeten an individual's life, it "can connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing," creating the foundation to forge social bonds and community cohesion. And strong arts programming in schools helps close a gap that has left many a child behind: From Mozart for babies to tutus for toddlers to family trips to the museum, the children of affluent, aspiring parents generally get exposed to the arts whether or not public schools provide them. Low-income children, often, do not. "Arts education enables those children from a financially challenged background to have a more level playing field with children who have had those enrichment experiences,'' says Eric Cooper, president and founder of the  National Urban Alliance for Effective Education.

Thanks as always to the students for sharing their creativity and to their teachers, Brad Gibson from Princess Margaret Secondary, Donna Cowles of Summerland Secondary and Dawn Richards from Penticton Secondary School. It’s due to the commitment, passion and dedication of teachers such as these that students are able to reach outside of themselves and challenge the way they see and interact with the world around them. While the majority of these students will not pursue a career in the arts, they have all been given the gift of creative thinking which will manifest itself in ways yet unknown for the rest of their lives

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Do you have a family heirloom or thrift store find that you feel may be a hidden treasure? If so, book an appointment to have it appraised on May 8th by either Peter S. Blundell AA, Independent Art and Antiques Appraiser or Anthony Westbridge, Westbridge Fine Arts Gallery, Vancouver. Anthony will assess all original artwork pieces.
Peter will assess everything else - prints, silver, furniture, porcelains, pottery, collectibles etc.  EXCEPT he does not assess coins, jewellery, stamps, guns, wrist watches but pocket watches are fine, guns, but swords are fine, and antiquities over 400 years old are not assessed at this time.

A little bit about the appraisers: 

Anthony Westbridge - owner Westbridge Fine Arts Gallery, one of Canada's leading art experts, publisher of "Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction" and the "Canadian Art Sales Index" who has monthly on-line auctions. Anthony will only look at original artworks, and is looking for consignment pieces. If you are considering selling any of your pieces, now is a good time to visit with him. www.westbridgeauctions.com

Peter S. Blundell AA, Independent Art and Antiques Appraiser, of Vernon, publisher of three books 'Marketplace Guide to Victorian Furniture", "Marketplace Guide to Oak Furniture" First and Second Edition, and ebook. www.blundellartandantiques.com.

*And if your item is too big eg. a large piece of furniture, take a photo, take measurements, bring a moveable part (drawer) so Peter can really see the wood, and he will go from there.

For more knowledge - Peter.'s new ebook is now available - Marketplace Guide to Oak Furniture - for reference and to help you with buying furniture. This is available through the publisher - www.collectorbooks.com

The appraisals will take place between 10am and 5pm

Cost: $40.00 (members)/$50 (non-members) for a 15 minute appointment, up to three items governed by the clock.

To make an appointment, please call the Penticton Art Gallery at (250) 493-2928. Payment is required at the time of booking in order to secure your place. Cost to for a 15 minute verbal appraisal is $40 for gallery members and members of the S.S. Sicamous and Penticton Museum and $50 for non-members. Partial proceeds will benefit the Penticton Art Gallery and the Penticton Museum. Spectators and more than welcome and are free and encouraged to attend. Please note that assessments are verbal opinions on value based on their knowledge and expertise, and are not suitable for insurance purposes.

Do you need something restored?

Bring your damaged painting, frame or a photo of antique furniture requiring restoration and have Ted provide some advice on how to have them repaired or reconditioned. The session will include DIY tips and techniques for restoring your antique, including an opportunity to purchase restoration materials and supplies to get the job done.    

Ted Senior has been restoring antiques for over 30 years. He operated his own restoration studio in Toronto for 12 years and has done work on behalf of Waddingtons Auction House and the Royal Ontario Museum. He has also been an antique importer/exporter and more recently an artifact restorer for the Penticton Museum and SS Sicamous.  

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

A fun filled art lottery!

Spring is here and we are offering up a wide assortment of orphaned artworks we have found in the dark recesses of the gallery. Each ticket purchased gives you the opportunity to take home one of these works. Which one will depend on when your ticket is drawn and what you consider to be art. The choice is yours! What will you choose?

In addition, there may be a special surprize behind any one of the paintings, you you might just win twice!

Friday, May 10th @ 8pm-10pm

Tickets Prices:

$25 - Students/Members

$30 - Non-members

For tickets come by the gallery @ 199 Marina Way, Penticton, or call us @ 250-493-2928

Want a preview??

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, March 23rd @ 2pm

Main Gallery

This is the second of an ongoing series of exhibitions which are intended to explore and celebrate the incredible depth and breadth of our region’s visual arts community. Borrowing the word terroir from the wine industry, this series of exhibitions seeks to discover if there are any special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of the Okanagan Valley has had on the artist who live here and the work they produce. In choosing the title I loved the double entendre of the word "figuratively" which by definition implies the words are metaphoric; they are a figure of speech meant to convey something different from their literal meaning, while also alluding to the human form and condition, which is a subject each of these artists draws upon as an inspiration. This is intended to be a survey, an introduction to a range of contemporary artists working here in the Okanagan Valley who are all exploring a similar theme. I hope this exhibit will encourage you to seek out more of their work, along with others working in the region, and I look forward to hearing the conversations and the dialogue which will develop as a result of this exhibition.  I would like to thank all of the participating artists for their willingness to be a part of this exhibition. 

Wanda Lock is a painter living in Lake Country who, according to her significant other, watches too many coming of age movies. She is also known to play the Stone Temple Pilots while working in her studio. She is not sure what her fondness of grunge music and teenage angst movies have in common with her current body of work but she is convinced that all will become clear in good time. Wanda graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1992 and returned to the Okanagan shortly thereafter. Recent exhibitions include ‘It came from the sky’, Elevation Gallery 2010, ‘Pitching Tents’, Vernon Public Art Gallery 2009 and ‘Stacks and Piles’ Kelowna Art Gallery 2008. Wanda Lock is represented by Elevation Gallery in Canmore, AB The Front Gallery in Edmonton, AB.

Stephan Bircher was born in St-Gallen, Switzerland. In kindergarten he had his mouth washed with soap on a regular basis and grew up to become an anarchist, a hippie, and a camel tamer in India.  After the camel tamer (ok... camel trainer) stint he taught art, handicraft and sports in secondary school in Switzerland. He now makes his home in Enderby, British Columbia and spends a lot of time in his shop tinkering with bones and found objects. As a lighting designer he has designed for theatres such as the Electric Company Theatre and the Leaky Heaven Circus in Vancouver, Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, Runaway Moon Theatre in Enderby and the Wishbone Theatre in Dunster, Alberta.

Rose Braun was born in Regina, SK and completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology/Sociology at the University of Regina. After completing a B.Ed at the University of Alberta and attending an arts program at the University of Calgary, it gave her the opportunity to reflect upon the importance of art and culture in her own life; both on a physical level, and psychological, having experienced the impact of a strong cultural environment in those cities. Braun's university studies provided her with a critical mind allowing a chance to discover her true passion; creating art. Braun's art career began, following her heart, taking concrete and imagined ideas of places and people, and working them carefully onto the surfaces of her steel canvases. Moving to the Okanagan in the 80's proved to be great inspiration with our rugged, natural landscape.

Michael Hermesh was born 1955 in Spiritwood, SK and studied art at Okanagan University College and the Vancouver School of Art (Emily Carr). He also has extensive experience in furniture design and ornamental carving. From his residence and self-constructed studio, he continues to indulge his passion for sculpting, as well as hold drawing workshops and sculpture courses. His primary interest is figurative sculpture and his public sculpture, “The Frieze of the Arts”, graces the façade of the Summerland Arts Center. “The Friends of the Garden” and the Summerland Chapter of the International Sculpture Symposium (through Agriculture Canada) have commissioned his “Standing Man” sculpture for the Summerland Research Station Ornamental Gardens. Michael’s work continues to be well received and is represented in international collections throughout Canada, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 27th @ 2pm

Shauna Oddleifson graduated from UBC Okanagan (previously OUC) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, graduating with distinction. Since then, Shauna has been involved with the arts community in Kelowna working in galleries as well as volunteering with various organizations and special events. Shauna has a studio practice, both art and craft-based, and has exhibited work throughout the Okanagan as well as in various artist run centres and galleries across Canada. She is on the Board of Directors for Cool Arts and is the Assistant to the Associate Deans Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.

Johann Wessels was born in the small town of Bloemfontein in the center of South Africa. After completing high school and compulsory military service, he earned his BA in Fine Arts majoring in History of Art, Drawing and Printmaking. He was awarded the prize for best art student in his final year. He taught History of Art, Printmaking and Drawing at a number of universities in South Africa before leaving for Canada in 1999 when he settled in Moosejaw, SK for 10 years. In this time he worked in the film and TV industry and was the recipient of a Saskatchewan Arts Board Grant in 2010. He moved to Penticton, BC in 2011. Artist Talk: Wednesday, April 24th @ 2pm

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt. 

Exhibition Tour: Saturday, May 18th @ 1pm

For the majority of Michelle Forsyth’s career, the root source and inspiration behind of her work can be found in the memories of her own past and the moments of witnessing the grief and loss experienced by others. Growing up in the age of TV, Michelle has been deeply influenced by the media and its obsessive need to cash in on the private moments of grief and despair experienced daily around the globe. What was once shocking has become almost mundane and far too commonplace and we are increasingly becoming numb to the horrors which are taking place daily. We need only turn on the TV, log on to our computer, or open the paper to witness the extent of personal tragedy experienced by so many. To counter these alienating depictions of private spectacle, Michelle favors a sensual approach to her art making and imbues her work with the tactile qualities of the handmade, crafting and building up paintings using a series of repetitive gestures. This slow and meditative process suits her obsessive attention to detail and its in these moments of creation where she finds herself connecting with her subject and its in these moments where their histories collide.

For the past several years, her work has explored the tenuous balance between public and private memories of collective tragedies and traumas. In her series 100 Drawings, one sees the fleeting presences and images of things left behind—such as mattresses dumped in the woods, clouds floating overhead, and wildflowers growing up though the cracks in the sidewalk—dominate each composition. The images in these paintings are willingly unresolved and are partially obscured with surface embellishments that include thousands of tiny, sinuous brush strokes, and colorful hand-stitches that hold beads and sequins to the paper. Part requiem and part cathartic obsession, Michelle works  to simultaneously test the imprint of her  own presence while using mark making to record the passage of time. A meticulous attention to detail invites the viewer to get up close and intimate with the work. It is at this range where she is able to provide a space for poetic engagement in order to evoke in the viewer the sentiment of loss and grief.

Recently Michelle has also begun developing an entirely new body of work based on the patterns taken from her husband’s shirts. These pieces are varied in both stylistic and material approach and consist of paintings on linen, wood, and weavings. Much more intimate in scope than her previous works, the process of making these paintings is a labor of love. Built by mixing a new palette for each painting session, slight variations in color are visible in their surfaces and each completed work becomes a monument to the labor that comprises it. Overall, she equates the process of creation as a point of identification with others, rather than solely about the craft of painting and using repetition to fill a void marked by the inadequacies of commemorating past events or comprehending the experiences of others. It is in these private, performative acts of creation where Michelle hides her fears, occasionally finding herself slipping into a state of reverie.

Born in Vancouver BC in 1972, Michelle Forsyth holds an MFA from Rutgers University and a BFA from the University of Victoria. She currently resides in Pullman, Washington, where she teaches painting and drawing at Washington State University.

For the past thirty years, Christopher Watts has been working with systematically based art involving the incorporation of numbers in grids, sequences and at times, colour. The work has evolved from monochromatic pattern images that used numerical locations and loading systems in grids to the inclusion of a colour code system influenced by esoteric ideas found in the Cabbala, Anthroposophy, and Theosophy. The additional layering of mystically inclined colour on top of numerical marks, located within the gridded image field, reveals unexpected geometrical relationships.

Chris Watts’ work represents a long-term interest in patterning, order and to a certain degree spiritual or esoteric ideas.  His images use numbers to explore location and sequential relationships—referencing cellular structure or even the double helix of DNA.  The forms are not biomorphic but relate more to crystalline arrangements and deeper levels of order found in nature.  Some viewers become involved in the process of uncovering how the images are constructed - a puzzle.  However, Watts is very interested in stimulating those deeper contemplative moments where the viewer’s thoughts drift inward—perhaps into their own interpretation as to the place that patterns of all types, including those in nature, have in our experience.

In recent years, Christopher has also incorporated the use of spiral forms to act as a guide for locating numbers in grids, and at different times he has used as many as four spiral tracks that have been included in one grid, but more recently he has settled on the incorporation of one or two interlocking forms. Currently his interests have led him to the study of a Boustrophedon configuration where linear sequences move back and fourth across the visual field.

In an effort to broaden the influence that order, placement, and patterning have had on the evolution of his inquiries, Watts takes interest in subjects such as Bronze Age stone monuments, spirals and mazes, Pythagoras, counting processes, scientific structures, bell ringing, Theosophy, sound, the geometrical tradition in art, and of course pattern. This echo back to historical and/or ancient times invites questions about the interest of early peoples in order and conceptual ideas concerning the organization of the world in general.  As an artist, the final question for Christopher has always been, “ Am I the originator of the visual structure being discovered or am I just uncovering what already existed? ”

Watts studied at Plymouth College of Art, University of London/Goldsmiths College, and Ohio University, and taught  previously at the University of Rhode Island, University College London/Slade School of Fine Art, Trent Polytechnic, Gloucestershire College of Art, Cornish College of Arts, and Middle Tennessee State University.  He is currently a member of the art faculty at Washington State University.

Exhibition Tour: Wednesday, May 29th @ 2pm

Project Room Gallery

Growing up in northwest Oregon, Terry Isaac’s childhood playground was the picturesque Willamette Valley and it was here that Terry discovered his lifelong appreciation of wildlife and the natural environment. Early on in his education Terry became aware of the symbiotic relationship between the landscape and the creatures which inhabit it and this indelible impression formed the foundation on which his illustrious career has since been built. Like many young artists, Terry’s early art education grew out of his interest in animation, cartooning and children’s book illustration. Upon graduation Terry quickly rediscovered his childhood passion for wildlife and landscape and since the mid 1980s, he has devoted himself to the documentation and celebration of the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it with a particular focus on dramatic light. He is equally inspired by large expansive panoramas as well as close-up intimate views celebrating a diverse range of subjects from whales to hummingbirds. Over the past 25 years he has firmly established himself as a leader in his field garnering international fame and recognition for his photo realistic paintings.

During his successful professional career Terry has been the featured “Artist of the Year” at a number of prestigious art shows/expos, has placed in stamp and print competitions, has been commissioned to create the Audubon Society handbooks and has developed a main character in a Walt Disney production. His works are housed in prominent permanent collections such as Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Bennington Center for the Arts, American Airlines, First National Bank of South Africa and in many private and corporate collections around the world.

Terry is an accomplished teacher and his approach to painting is outlined in his book,  Painting the Drama of Wildlife, Step by Step now in its second edition (North Light Books, 1998). The book’s success led to the creation of a DVD, Painting Wildlife in Acrylic(Creative Catalyst, 2005). Terry’s art has also been featured in several other publications.  Terry now calls Penticton home and continues to teach annual workshops and paint in his studio gallery.

The 16th annual Meadowlark Nature Festival takes place from May 16th to 20th under the banner of Sustainable Land Use. The festival is designed to be fun and informative for people of all ages and abilities. The classic event is a guided foray into the special environs of the South Okanagan Similkameen, from Canada’s unique desert to the alpine meadows high above the Okanagan Lake. But the schedule offers something for everyone from guided walks and bike rides, indigenous cultural tours, canoe trips, bird watching, horseback riding, geology and history tours, art exhibits, starry nights, nature photography, green buildings and much more.  For more information and a complete schedule of events please visit their website at: http://www.meadowlarkfestival.bc.ca/

Toni Onley Gallery

It’s with great pleasure that the Penticton Art Gallery once again partners with the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School to showcase artwork by the school’s students. Located on the Penticton Indian Band Reserve, the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School features breathtaking views of both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, serving approximately eighty students from junior kindergarten to grade eight. In addition to providing the students with a provincially recognized curriculum, the school also offers a strong Nsyilxen language and culture program.  This welcoming school environment encourages students to connect with their cultural roots and traditions.

Designed by the Iredale Group, the building is an architectural masterpiece featuring state-of-the-art technology. When designing the building the architects design brief required that the building grow from the landscape with the colour palette and soft curvaceous forms evoking the textures, patterns and colours found in the surrounding hillside. Organic forms continue throughout the interior. The cultural education space take their form from a modern interpretation of the typical pit house cross-section culminating in a dramatic atrium, dedicated to teaching the Okanagan People’s language history and art.

The cultural school’s teachers, as well as following standard B.C. curriculum, also teach the students their native language and Okanagan hand-drumming songs. The students also regularly take part in traditional activities such as root digging, medicine gathering and sweats. By creating an environment that balances the past with the present, the band has created an incredible cultural legacy for the community’s children that will pay dividends for generations to come.

Last year’s exhibition was a tremendous success providing the citizens of Penticton the rare opportunity to look at the Okanagan landscape through the eyes of the children of the Syilx People. Be it nature or nurture, it’s hard to deny the inherent connection and intimate understanding these children have with the land and its inhabitants which is  reflected in their artwork. It is exciting to see this relationship develop and these children have become cultural ambassadors, promoting and sharing their heritage to foster a greater understanding of the Syilx People and the landscape we all inhabit.

I would like to thank Michele Woitzik, administrator of the Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School along with the teachers and staff for their continued belief and support of this project and the unique cultural opportunities it creates for these students. Thanks also to Chief Jonathan Kruger and the members of the Penticton Indian Band. Finally, many thanks go to the children for sharing their artwork without which this exhibition would not have been possible. Way' limləmt.