This year’s Friends of the Gallery show, or FOG as it is called, is the biggest ever. Ninety-eight artworks in various mediums were packed around the gallery walls while 98 artists and their fans crowded the Arts Centre in Sechelt at the Jan. 6 opening reception.
For this annual show the artists are asked to select their own piece, one only, and submit it without any jurying pronouncements so that the curator – in this case a team – has only three days to view the submission, hang the show and make it work. This was accomplished effectively this year by grouping artwork by themes or colour – all the beach scenes in one area, all the blue-greens by the door as you enter – but because of the volume of work many pieces had to hang close to the floor.
The small showing of photography is nonetheless striking. Rory Hooper-McEvoy’s Blossoming Fog depicts cherry trees in bloom in a setting, perhaps Stanley Park. Janice Williams’ humorous photo titled Fluke shows an anonymous fellow sitting at the curb whose head has been replaced by a blue balloon. Paul Clancy managed to capture the conforming, cipher-like qualities of a financial corporate office in his photograph.
“I brought my owlie,” said Cornelia van Berkel, lover of animals and birds, who is showing a painted barred owl peeping out of a hollowed piece of wood. Melissa Tulloch also revealed her delight in birds in her Opus Borealis painting.
Some of the most interesting pieces are three dimensional: Jean-Pierre Desjarlais has crafted a prehistoric claw and foot from cedar, plexiglass, fabric and fibre, titled Alligator. It’s frighteningly real. Will Cummer’s carved driftwood chair saw many admirers shuffle comfortably into its seat to have their photo taken. Doug Ives also submitted a woodworking piece – a smoothly sanded hanger dangling painted hearts. Tam Harrington’s metallic snake sculpture slithers up the wall. Darla van Horne, a silversmith who makes jewelry, features an encaustic foil of mixed metals.
Acrylics are popular. Elaine Seepish has become one of my favourites with her work. The Greenhouse features an almost familiar building sketched in acrylic on canvas. Stanley Funk’s acrylic of Boats Docked is realistic; he commented that he admires an artist’s imagination but chooses to paint what he sees. Kevin McEvoy adds a painterly nuance to his realistic rendering of tugboats.
Roy Peters’ acrylic landscape, Out of Nowhere, is a highlight of the show. Maurice Spira has a way of making a still life come alive. His Hip Turnip depicts a misshapen vegetable, a book, an onion and a bowl, not terribly exciting, yet they invite you to step into that kitchen and make soup. Sheila Page’s Kelp Triptych is a triple depiction of tangled sea plants. Agnete Newman’s Shipwreck is an interesting acrylic, pen and pencil painting in which the ghost of a ship is seen in a suggestive swirl. Alanna Wood has turned to gold and silver in her mixed media exploration. Nena Braathen’s etchings foreshadowed 2016, the year of the monkey. Kenneth Symons, who began painting late in life, depicts the glistening streets of Vancouver’s Granville and Robson under umbrella weather.
Heather Waddell has a new look in her art – Catch of the Day features a bright blue heron and a bright yellow fish in a colourful frame. It hangs by Suzy Naylor’s bright flowers titled Gesundheit. Colour sits well on Judy McLarty, both in her purple hair that she wore to the reception and her floral painting. Gigi Hoeller branches out with a flower and arbutus painting rendered in oil pastels on canvas. Abstracts are represented by Colin Righton’s colourful piece, Kasia Krolikowska’s abstract and Ian MacLeod’s essay in white, Composition No. 404.
The show is on until Feb. 7 at the Doris Crowston Gallery, Arts Centre, 5714 Medusa, Sechelt.
