Lynden Beesley

Lynden Beesley has made the Okanagan her home. Gradually Lynden’s new work has evolved to include the flora and fauna of this verdant valley. Her European identity with its myth and folkloric backdrop is now interlaced with imagery which includes her Canadian habitat and values. Lynden continues to work in Bronze Sculpture and limited edition Hand Pulled Prints.

Judy Burns

The content of my work focuses on ‘what we don’t see’, what we skim over and take for granted. It is about shape and form, light and shadow. How are these elements altered with the change of season, the time of day or our particular frame of mind?

When looking closely, these images and minor events can alter one’s life.

Val Eibner

My journey into Light, Color, and Reflection is propelled by using Glass as the vehicle. Fusing (Melting) Glass together allows all of these choices for the artist to manipulate and create an artwork featuring many sensory effects.

My fascination and focus this year surrounds the altering of fused glass forms using slumping, weaving or folding techniques.  The resulting effects create a highly tactile, porous and reflective surface that titillates the imagination.

Kenna Graff

Artistically, Kenna is not limited to one form or style of art. From landscapes that translate ancient wanderer to colour-pure paintings that lighten the heart. Kenna taps into a variety of methodologies, most lead by the moment, intuitively and interdisciplinary. The works have evolved from unknown forces, the power and sweetness of more specific places and moments in nature and natural phenomena; from enthusiasm and celebration, to grace and poetry.

Inspiration drawn from the earth and blended with her desert background provides elegance in colour and form, cultivating a painting, extracting the organic elements, sometimes into patterns, textures, decorative motifs and atmospheric gestures.

Kenna's artistic pursuits include encouraging, sharing, interacting, appreciating and presenting the arts through her own art work, working in fine arts galleries and cofounder of the arts group Ars Longa.

Angelika Jaeger

The beauty of learning surprises you!
Known as an assembler in my art practice, my new work is no exception.  This year will show some intriguing new 3D objects. Through my studies I have been introduced to working with new materials, such as metal, in particular, copper. This ancient textile has been used in different ways, now it comes to life in a series of nests which I have created. I hope you will enjoy my new work. I look forward to welcoming you at Ars Longa 2011.

Mary-Ann Acutt

Pavel Barta

My artistic vision allows itself to be expressed in various media, ranging from graphic to stone. My sculptures reveal what I see “hidden in the stone”. Sometimes this is a more or less realistic representation of a subject, often it is an abstract expression that I want to share with the viewer's imagination. I work also with other media, especially with sculpting clay and create miniature sculptures.

My best reward is to know that someone's day got brighter thanks to my art.

Debbie Busch

If you limit the artistic process, you limit your creative potential. I challenge myself to paint utilizing new methods of mark-making, experimenting with different materials, all the while staying open to the processes of chance. I have had the opportunity to travel to many different countries and have found in these cultures similarities in a visual language that speak to all. Symbols which are found on road signs, airports, packaging material, all contain a simplicity that resonate within me, it is this aesthetic that I strive for in my work. Although my paintings source of imagery is simplistic, often primal, the bold use of colour and form create and an intensive dialogue on the canvas. Painting is my genuine search for truth and purity within the human spirit that is both realistic and abstract.

Dave Clarke

David's designs are inspired from nature and unusual textures. He incorporates natural gemstones, gold and platinum nuggets in his artistic jewelry. His unique handcrafted fine quality jewelry is made to pass down through the generations of your family.

Julie Elliot

“Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it, because the largest part of the job of the artist is to listen to the work, and go where it tells one to go.” (Madeleine L’Engle).  My process starts with a word, a phrase or a spiritual teaching that resonates with me and invites exploration.  I then “listen to the work” as I layer acrylic paint and monoprints, weaving together loose spontaneous marks with layers that are carefully considered.    Lately, I’ve been preoccupied with the union of opposites – both as a concept to explore and as a process for painting.  I’m striving for paintings that are both complex and simple, meaningful for me and open ended for the viewer, painted with abandon and built slowly over time with much reflection.  It’s a challenging way to work that is also joyful and compelling.

Hannah Griffin

Hannah Griffin is a young emerging artist with a special interest in the relationship between landscape and abstraction. She is a recent graduate from the University of British Columbia Okanagan Bachelor of Fine Arts program. She has been actively and energetically producing and showing work since receiving her degree.  Hannah was born and raised in Kelowna and has a special connection to local landmarks which appear frequently in her work.

Her practice focuses in on the importance of landscape as a genre as well as its cultural importance in contemporary society. Her paintings portray a unique and exciting look at the landscape genre by combining new aerial viewpoints and references to geological processes as well as topographical maps. Hannah’s unique and exciting large and medium scale acrylic paintings are a refreshing addition to the landscape genre.

Sara Lige

Just as experience is layered – in time, memory, and emotion, my work is a result of building layers until a resolution is reached. Mediums of choice are those that allow me to work in stages and   layers -printmaking, drawing, collage and painting. Thematically, my work reflects basic life issues –emotion, spirituality, identity and memory; it is “inner-directed” art created out of my thoughts and personal experience. 

This new work signals my return to the studio after a break of a few years while I focused on my studies as well as Cool Arts, the disability arts group I founded in 2003.

Lori Mairs

Lori Mairs is a sculptor and film maker entering her second year of graduate studies at UBCO. Her practice-based research is a creative collaboration between herself and the land she lives on. Lori's sculptural works of steel, copper, bone, antler and semiprecious stone are a reflection of dialogue she's having with the land.

Trevor Moen

David Montpetit

Valorie Nielsen

RELAX ~ VISUALIZE ~ CREATE
Open your eyes.  Open your mind.  Explore texture, colour, techniques.
Push the boundaries.  Test, observe, test again.  Keep it fresh!  Be grateful.
Fuel your passion.  Simple = Beautiful.  Absorb inspiration.  Reflect nature’s miracles.
Seek balance in life.  Consider criticism.  Accept compliments.  Practice more.  Just start.
Drive your dreams.
Breathe deeply.
Believe

Shaz

On first observing the eclectic diversity of Shaz's work, one is struck by the originality.  She creates unique, earthy pottery in subtle tones, shocking clay masks with bulging eyes, Picasso-esque faces in vibrant colours, large woven masks with enigmatic personalities, and innovative 3-D wall art and clay murals in a variety of subjects, styles and finishes, as well as abstract, free standing clay and marble sculptures.  She is most well known for her masks, and jazz & wine series of clay wall art.

It is apparent that Shaz draws her inspiration from a wide variety of sources creating the evocative, striking array of works which emerge from her studio.

The need to explore and expand as an artist leads Shaz on a constantly evolving experiment in colours, textures, styles, complexity, and firing & finishing processes.  The challenge and satisfaction of creating art with earth, fire and stone give her the incentive to create for her own and the viewers enjoyment.

Shelah Pansegrau

Shelah Pansegrau is a life observer, learner and artist who has admired, collected and created art her entire life.

As a glass bead artist, Shelah spins strands of molten glass at the torch to create one of a kind, glass beads which she designs into intimate and wearable art.  Every bead is individually hand crafted from Venetian and German glass rods, pure gold and silver leaf, reduction frits and intense fire.  Every piece of jewelry is designed and crafted to include pearls, crystals, sterling beads and findings and signature Bella Dolci tag.

Shelah finds working with molten glass exciting and expressive, challenging and dangerous, obsessive and satisfying.

In addition to ink on paper drawings, Shelah is also exploring mixed media applications for her photography.  Using various painting software, she digitally alters her photographs creating impressionist style, one off giclees.

Carolina Sanchez de Bustamante

It is my intention to open paths with the possibility to connect them to joyful discoveries.   My art is a constant search as a human being.

SPIRITS DESIRE, SPIRITS ATTAIN >>
tapestry in wool, mohair and cotton - 36"x42"x3"

ashpanaira.com
ashpanairagallery.com

Annabel Stanley

Annabel Stanley was born in England in 1966 and is the great grand niece of the famous architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.

She was a florist in London for 4 years and her clients included Tiffany’s the Jewelers, Duke and Duchess of York at Buckingham Palace and she arranged flowers for Ella Fitzgerald when she performed at Royal Albert Hall.

Annabel has been weaving for 15 years. She started in New Zealand where she lived with her husband Grant Stanley (Wine maker at Quails Gate Winery).
She has been featured in The New Zealand Gardener, New Zealand Cuisine and on NZ National TV, also in the first issue of Sculptures Pacific in Canada.
Annabel weaves with vine canes, dog wood, willow, wire, moss and many other materials which give a vibrant natural effect that exhibit well inside or outside.

annabelstanley@hotmail.com
www.annabelstanley.com

John Topham

John took his formal training in Fine Arts at the Kootenay School Art. He taught pottery in Yukon and Labrador, with emphasis in wheel work, hand building and glazing techniques.

In the process of evolution, his interest in turning from vertical to horizontal and an abundance hardwood, became his principal interest. Initially, he found the the challenges of wood turning somewhat challenging, but has since mastered the nuances of wood and it's characteristics.

Mentored by world renown Wood turner, Richard Raffin, John developed his skills and knowledge required to produce functional turned work.

The bulk of John's work is utilitarian, using local hardwood trees that have been discarded and salvaged, contemporary pieces are more frequently crafted through inspiration and motivation.

Most sales are transacted through his studio, currently he has work at the Summerland Art Gallery, Summerland Sweets, Summerland Chamber of Commerce, Street Gallery in Victoria and others in the Okanagan Valley.

His work has been sold throughout Canada, the U.S., Caribbean, Europe and Asia.

Francine Walker

Francine Walker is a modern goldsmith and metalsmith, whose mind is constantly stimulated with creative ideas. She loves to create one-of-a-kind pieces of wearable art that explore texture, and simple geometrical shapes. Gold, silver and gemstones are her favorite materials to create with. Custom and production designs are made by the artist personally to ensure originality and quality.

She is a studio graduate of Jewellery and Small Object Design from Kootenay School of the Arts in Nelson, British Columbia, as well as a graduate of Interior Design from Mount Royal Collage in Calgary, Alberta.
Francine lives with her musician husband and Lego-building-dare-devil boys. She creates from her studio overlooking Lake Okanagan in Kelowna, BC.

www.francinewalkerstudio.com