By Don Urquhart
The Okanagan Art Gallery, aka Hidden Door Gallery, has started up its First Friday events again with receptions held the first Friday of each month between 5-7 p.m. featuring wall-to-wall art, artists on site some of whom are creating during the event, live music and wine and cheese.
At the most recent event, the Times Chronicle spoke to three of the artists about their art and their inspiration.
The first, drawing inspiration from two heavyweight post-impressionist artists that were worlds apart, local Osoyoos artist Sandra Albo – well known in her own right – cites Vincent van Gogh and Emily Carr as two preeminent painters whose styles have influenced her own artistic direction.
Keenly resonating here in BC of course are the works of Carr (1871–1945), famous for the inspiration she found amongst First Nations peoples and the rainforests of BC’s coast.
Carr was one of the first artists of national significance to emerge from the West Coast who along with the Group of Seven, became a leading figure in Canadian modern art in the twentieth century.
“I think it’s the feeling of the geography, the way, Van Gogh and Emily Carr express geography was with colourful rhythm a lot of artists don’t use and that’s what interested me,” Albo says.
Wine, cheese, live music and lots of art!
“I put a lot of rhythm into what I’m doing,” she says motioning to the sky in a painting she is working on during the recent First Friday reception.
She goes on to describe how things on earth aren’t “square”, citing the example of old buildings, “even though they are architecturally square as they get old they lose their squareness and develop a personality.
The subject matter in her painting is an old wooden structure that she happened across which leads to the question, does she travel specifically to find subject matter or does she paint what she encounters when travelling?
The answer is unexpected. “My husband and I are amateur geologists and belong to a rock hunting club so we’re out of doors a lot looking for rocks and gems, so that brings us to all these places.”
This covers most of the province and a number of trips to Europe as well, with Albo saying her paintings are her “diary” of their travels. What’s top of her bucket list I query. St. Petersburg she replies because “it’s probably the museum or the art gallery with the most art in the world in it.” Indeed as Russia’s cultural capital, there are literally dozens and dozens of major art museums in the city.
“I think to be a good painter you have to study other artists and gain the influence from going to places where you see good art influences your own style and is part of your education,” she says.
Perhaps unsurprisingly Albo is inspired by old mining sites. This is no doubt fostered by their rock-hunting passion and also her husband’s love of history as she explains he used to teach the subject.
“We love old mining places and places where we can rock hound and it’s the old buildings in these places. I love the feeling of old buildings in landscape, that’s my favourite subject.”
She also reads up on the history of all the old buildings she paints so that she knows the correct story and “often when I tell the story that’s what makes someone buy the painting because they know the story behind it.”
All about the gaze – Carmen Tome with her visually arresting painting of a bald eagle that was recovering from a broken wing at the Greater Vancouver Zoo.
On a wall that’s impossible to miss near the reception desk is where Carmen Tome’s paintings are displayed. Her paintings never fail to catch the eye, and this time was no exception with a painting of an eagle that only reveals itself as a painting and not a photograph by peering mere inches away from the artwork.
Very typical of Tome’s style which is heavily focused on realism the level of detail is jaw-droppingly stunning.
“I went to a raptor show in Aldergrove at the Greater Vancouver Zoo because I wanted to photograph the eagle and the eagle was nowhere to be seen. Afterwards, she went up to the trainer and said, “Where’s the eagle? It was supposed to be in the show and that’s what I came to photograph!”
The trainer proceeded to take Tome to the back, taking the eagle out of its cage where it was recuperating from a broken wing. “It was a small eagle but it was so powerful,” she says.
Sitting on the trainer’s gloved hand “It was looking at everybody and then it became aware of me and it was the most incredible gaze I have ever seen,” she said, explaining that was the reference for her painting.
“It was only four feet from me, that’s why you can see all the detail,” she laughs. “I really enjoyed working on that,” she adds saying it took her about 10 days to complete it.
“It was pretty intense because when it comes to detail you paint what you see and then you come back another time and you see more detail and that goes on and on and on so the longer you take to work on it, the more real it gets.”
The force is with him – For Graham Mckenzie its been a life-long painting journey from the excitement of Star Wars to the serenity of nature.
Realism is also very much a passion of Graham Mckenzie who is partial to nature and landscapes. It wasn’t always this way though he says explaining that he began painting a cross between science fiction, like Star Wars and caves for instance, and flowering trees and rock houses.
“But then my friends got me into hiking, and then my entire art shifted,” he says. Much of his earlier subject matter was from the coast and since then he’s been in Osoyoos for about five years.
When asked how the different environment informs his paintings he says, perhaps controversially: “I think it’s pretty here, but I find with all the olive, tan and drab colours, while it’s pretty it doesn’t make for a pretty picture.”
We’re discussing this as we stand in front of a snowscape which fills three-quarters of the canvas, a wood fence and an old barn in the background. The snow is white but so delicately perceptiable is the depth and consistency of the snow you can imagine the muffled crunching sound of walking through it.
Right now he’s working on a painting of Skaha Lake. “Mostly I’m relying on more Instagram,” he says. “I still try to use photographs that are local and I always contact the artists or the photographer to see if I can use them.”
“I haven’t had a chance to go to Jasper or Banff since I was a kid and I’ve never been to Yoho National Park but through Instagram, I’ve been able to get images of these places and I’ve met some artists through their it as well.”
He says it enlarges the group of artists he interacts with, not just local artists but all over the world and photographers as well.
It’s been a lifelong passion for him. “I loved art when I was a kid,” but then going to the bar and meeting women became more of a priority, he laughs. Eventually, he moved back to Abbotsford where he started “dreaming about artwork” and then his aunt gave him an old drafting table.
“Then I had a place to do art,” that’s something that’s really important for everybody because then it’s not just the kitchen table that you have to clean up before supper.” And then came the Star Wars inspiration followed by an interest in nature around the same time he was “hanging around some galleries.”
Getting to know one of the gallery owners, Mckenzie says this person became a friend and mentor for him. “Through him, I was able to be surrounded by other artists,” something that is an important aspect of being part of a gallery or a group of artists, he says.
“Always willing to help each other, give advice, perspective, just sit back and listen,” he says.
And one piece of advice for budding artists: “Whenever I go to art shows I always encourage people regardless of their skill level to keep painting because regardless of skill level, everywhere, every artist does the same thing because it’s something they love.
“It just takes a while to get to the point where you feel confident enough to show people and maybe sell it. I think a lot of people purchasing art or thinking of purchasing art might not understand that.”
The next First Friday will take place Friday, Nov. 3 from 5-7 p.m. at Okanagan Art Gallery located at 8302 Main St, Osoyoos.
