Waking up in the crisp air, my view filled with mountain peaks glowing with warm morning light, I felt excited to be alive in the mountains! Last August, I joined the Alpine Club of Canada Artist Week high in the International Basin of the Purcell mountains, to explore and paint. With the alpine meadows literally bursting with wild flowers amongst snow capped peaks it was idyllic and almost surreal to wake each morning to that vision. What a privilege! As we hiked, painted or sat in awe of where we were, the desire to raise awareness of both the majesty and fragility of the wilderness grew. Though these wild places can be unpredictable and daunting there is always a nurturing of the soul and a feeling of “being home” that resonates deeply.
Valerie Speer
Joy Laking Gallery
has featured her distinctive watercolours of Nova Scotia ’ s beauty. Her 2010 Open House Exhibition is Oct 16, 17, 23 and 24 and although some new watercolours are still on display, the theme of this exhibition is Joy ’ s leap into doing oils and acrylics. In the studio last winter, Joy went off in several directions, doing big juicy loose oil stick canvases as well as small controlled acrylics. Often the small canvases served as studies for larger works. One of the books that Joy was reading at the time, a novel called Sunflowers, about Van Gogh, led to Joy ’ s series of Starry Night paintings.
In the spring, Joy and her husband, Jim Wyatt, set off in the car for the Yukon and Alaska. Camping across the country, gave Joy a renewed appreciation for our wonderful country. Joy took hundreds of photos and did small sketches and quarter sheet watercolours. Repeatedly she tried to capture the amazing grandeur of mountains with paint. None of
Joy ’ s on- location paintings managed to capture the gasp of mountain beauty to her satisfaction.
Since returning from this two month adventure, Joy has continued to try to capture the Yukon mountain beauty in her studio paintings. She feels that she succeeds in one new acrylic, called Kluane. This painting is moody and dark with the sunlight breaking through clouds over the mountains. A strip of light sparkles on Kluane Lake in the foreground. This painting is displayed at the Open House with 7 of the small sketches that Joy did on-location. Some of these sketches, especially of the totem poles, are sure to inspire some of this winter ’ s work.
Most of this summer, Joy has been standing out in fields, villages or on the shoreline trying to capture the light, colour and beauty of Nova Scotia in acrylic painting. Acrylic painting done on location has lots of challenges, such as the sun drying the paint on the palette.
It has also resulted in lots of clothes with paint on them. Although Joy usually paints close to her home, sometimes even just walking down onto the salt marsh, she also travels to other spots around Nova Scotia for one week painting trips. This year was especially interesting because Joy returned to the two places that she painted in watercolour in 2009. This year ’ s acrylic paintings done in the Port Joli area and also on Long Island, one of the Five Islands, are vibrant and strong. The eight paintings done during each of the weeks are displayed together for the Open House.
Laking ’ s Open House Exhibition is October 16, 17, 23 & 24. In addition to viewing all of her new paintings, there are four new prints and a selection of new paintings on greeting cards. Everyone is welcome. There is more information at www.joylakinggallery.com .
Joy Snihur Wyatt Laking
AGOG presents “Our Fragile Environment” Group Show
Important Notice Come meet and greet our visiting artists at the reception from 5pm to 7pm Friday, September 8. The artists will speak about the backcountry residency and their paintings around 5:30pm. All are welcome.
AGOG is very pleased to welcome Anne Aitken Anderson, Melanie MacVoy and Valerie Speer with their group exhibit “Our Fragile Environments – Painting the Purcells.”
About The Event
“Our Fragile Environments” is a group show featuring the paintings of Jaffray’s Anne Aitken Anderson, Fernie’s Melanie McVoy and Rosebud, Alberta’s Valerie Speer. Sub-titled “Painting the Purcells” all of the works came from a week long artist in residency with the Alpine Club of Canada.
Waking up in the crisp air, my view filled with mountain peaks glowing with warm morning light, I felt excited to be alive in the mountains! Last August, I joined the Alpine Club of Canada Artist Week high in the International Basin of the Purcell mountains, to explore and paint. With the alpine meadows literally bursting with wild flowers amongst snow capped peaks it was idyllic and almost surreal to wake each morning to that vision. What a privilege! As we hiked, painted or sat in awe of where we were, the desire to raise awareness of both the majesty and fragility of the wilderness grew. Though these wild places can be unpredictable and daunting there is always a nurturing of the soul and a feeling of “being home” that resonates deeply.
Valerie Speer
ANNE AITKEN ANDERSON is a long time Southeastern BC resident and emergent artist who seeks to capture the emotion and beauty of the surrounding landscape in oil and acrylic paintings.
Anne grew up on the East Coast of Canada in a home surrounded by artists and eccentrics. Strongly influenced by the wackiness of her childhood home where her mother (water colour artist) painted a giant colourful mural of “Noahs Ark” and all the animals across the front of the family house. Her father literally built the house around the his family of 5 children, following the architecture of Frank Loyd Wright. She often spent time at the neighbours, renowned Canadian war artists Molly Lamb Bobak and Bruno Bobak.
Anne spent the first half of her life as a left brained world, BSC Mathematics and Computers, only to have a life altering experience and discover her right brain. An artist friend showed up at her door with paints and said, “Let’s get started”. Her artist friend wanted to paint from a photo but Anne instantly drawn to paint the scene outside the window. Since then she has become a full-time artist pursuing watercolours then oils and studying and doing workshops with Doug Swinton, Sharon Lynn Williams, Charlie Easton to name a few as well as mentor Melanie MacVoy.
Anne loves to have fun painting “En Plein Air” in the mountains of British Columbia and the seaside of New Brunswick or wherever her paints take her.
MELANIE MacVOY was born and raised in Southern Ontario. Her creativity and love for the outdoors was nurtured from a young age. Melanie’s grandmother was a prolific muralist, painting scenes on the doors, walls and entire rooms of her home. Annual camping trips to Algonquin Provincial Park cultivated MacVoy’s appreciation for the Canadian landscape and intrigue with artist Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.
Melanie studied Fine Arts and Arts Administration at the University of Waterloo with renowned Canadian artist, Tony Urquhart being her most influential professor. During a summer co-op placement, Melanie relocated to Vancouver where she completed her Fine Arts degree through UBC and Emily Carr University.
While exploring the Coast Mountains and rainforests on Vancouver Island, Melanie fell in love with the outdoors lifestyle that BC has to offer. Seduced by “legendary” powder skiing, Melanie joined the small mountain community of Fernie, BC in 2000 where she worked for over 10 years as a Snowcat Operator at Island Lake Lodge while also pursuing her dream of becoming an artist.
After starting a family in 2012, Melanie decided to focus full-time on her art career while also being given the opportunity to be a stay-at-home Mom. After attending a workshop led by Charlie Easton in Jasper, Melanie started to practice outdoor painting on a regular basis. These short but intense sessions facilitated a period of artistic growth while also incorporating her active mountain lifestyle with landscape painting. New directions emerged with meeting other like-minded artists and going on inspiring painting trips together in the Canadian Rockies.
VALERIE SPEER works in acrylics, painting landscapes with a quiet rhythm that conveys a sense of serenity. Her use of flowing lines, play of light and blending of colour evoke this peaceful essence which is her signature. Her mountain paintings capture a sense of solitude in places of stunning grandeur, as she desires us to remember those moments when the rush and anxiety of our life falls away and we enter into being present in the wild places, hear the sounds, feel the warm sun, inhale fresh scents and let ourselves be nurtured.
Trained in Visual Arts, Valerie has painted professionally since 2002. She continues to be inspired by her outdoor experiences and the works of other artists including Lauren Harris. You can visit Valerie in the Arts Village of Rosebud, AB just east of Calgary, where she displays her art in the Speer & Brush Studio and Gallery. She is also represented at Paint Ur Art Out, Calgary, Lineham House Galleries in Okotoks and The Vault in Strathmore AB. and is an Active Member with the Federation of Canadian Artists, working towards her Signature Status.
