Dianne Hughes (Richard McGuire file photo)
Two Vernon women, one a potter and the other a glass artisan, will be featured in the next exhibition at Osoyoos Art Gallery, which opens Saturday.
Gale Woodhouse is a potter, who trained and apprenticed as a studio potter in England before moving her family and studio to B.C’s Sunshine Coast in 1986.
Her friend, Patricia Doyle, makes glass and jewelry. She lived many years in the Yukon before coming to Vernon, where she is an artisan and an art teacher.
The show, Inspired Naturally, runs from Oct. 17 to Nov. 7. There is an opening reception on Saturday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Sue Whittaker, gallery curator, admits she hadn’t seen either artist’s work when the show was arranged about a year ago.
“Gail Woodhouse came and did a workshop for the Osoyoos Potters,” said Whittaker. “They were just blown away by her work, so it was on their advice and wish that we got her.”
Woodhouse then suggested including Doyle, who often works with her in Vernon.
Based on the recommendations, Whittaker said she expects it to be a very special show.
Woodhouse, she said, does not only functional pottery, but also non-functional pottery that people can hang on walls.
“So you’re not just looking at mugs and teapots,” Whittaker said.
In Woodhouse’s biography on her website, she describes her sense of self as being “found in nature and the tactile and spiritual experience of creating sculptures in clay.”
She produces organic sculptural forms in clay, also incorporating welded metal and wooden structures.
“My heart resides somewhere in between coastal British Columbia and my roots in the geological history of Celtic England,” she writes.
Doyle combines lampwork glass focal beads, Swarovski crystals and various semi-precious stones to make jewelry. Her Aurora Borealis candleholders are a tribute to her years in the north.
She also does one-of-a-kind fused art glass pieces to decorate homes with colour and light.
Whittaker said it’s not unusual for the Osoyoos Art Gallery to feature artists from outside the Osoyoos-Oliver area, though they typically come from the Okanagan or Boundary, Similkameen, or Kootenay areas.
“We’re actually open to anybody,” she said, adding that she now receives requests from artists in other parts of Canada and even from abroad.
“I’m happy to respond to the ones that I think would make an impression and would fit into our gallery, but a lot of them are from far away and they don’t have any idea even where Osoyoos is probably,” said Whittaker. “But we certainly do have a wider scope now to choose from because of the internet and everybody advertising and using that to track us down.”
In another development, Whittaker confirmed that Dianne Hughes, who has been volunteering as acting director at the Osoyoos Art Gallery, plans to step down. Hughes took on that position after Tony Brummet stepped down as director in October 2013.
Hughes will continue to work on the gallery committee. Although the gallery circulated an email last month seeking a new director, Whittaker said the duties may be divided among others so the work doesn’t fall to just one person.
The Osoyoos Art Gallery is located at 8713 Main Street just west of town hall. During the fall it is open Tuesday to Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
