While the bustle of summer farmer’s markets is over now, the ART GALLERY of Osoyoos’ annual Christmas artisan show is bringing local artisans to you once again in the colder months. Their show this year, ‘Under the Tree,’ will display the unique works of 25 local artisans, and opened on Nov. 6.
Similar to the gallery’s summer artisan market, this show will have space for each individual artisan to set up their items on display for visitors.
The first day of the exhibit was on a rainy Saturday morning and saw a rush of people filtering in and out of the gallery space which was filled to the brim with Christmas spirit. The artisan’s booths merged together, blending in jewelry on a stand with paintings against the wall and a number of little knick-knacks peppered throughout the place.
The back room of the gallery is warm and inviting, complete with a white Christmas tree in the middle and beautiful unique items surrounding it like presents.
Darlene Fillion, a co-chair at the gallery, said they also have a couple of new artists who will be part of the market this year including a glass maker and a soap maker.
The other artisans include a variety from quilters to jewelry makers to painters to photographers and potters. It’s easy to fall in and get lost in the Christmas wonderland of this exhibit, on one hand appreciating the artisans’ work as well as sifting through potential holiday gifts.
“We also have our standby, which everybody loves, the crochet Christmas ornaments. June Smith works on these little ornaments and people love to collect them; they come in and buy like five, six at a time . . . they’re different little characters and are very, very cute,” said Fillion.
The artisan markets are very popular shows, said Fillion, because people like to see this variety of arts and unique items they can buy as little gifts or souvenirs.
These shows at the gallery started about six years ago, sparked by a similar idea in Nelson, where Fillion’s daughter has her own gallery.
“She had in her art gallery, this big open space like a foyer and she thought of this idea of bringing in more artists and using up the foyer and little spots that artists could put their art in,” explained Fillion.
Fillion brought this idea to the committee at the ART GALLERY of Osoyoos, who then decided that they would give it a try.
“We tried it for one year and it worked really good, and then we tried it for Christmas and it just mushroomed from there,” she said.
The ‘Under the Tree’ Christmas artisan market will be open in the ART GALLERY Osoyoos will run from Nov. 6 to Dec. 20. They are open Tuesday to Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
