A Celebration of Light opens at the Harbour Gallery in Madeira Park this week, April 8 to 24, as a showcase for two local artists who paint together and learn from one another: June Malaka and Helen Broadfoot.
"What excites me is trying to capture that special light," says Malaka, who is known for her watercolours, particularly her marine scenes and landscapes. She will also be showing a few of her stained glass pieces which, she says, are all about light. Much of the subject matter of her paintings takes place around Pender Harbour, just below a popular painting spot on the Madeira Park wharf. Over the years, Malaka, who has been painting since she was a teenager, has documented the changes in appearance and ownership taking place to the boats. Occasionally, she surprises gallery visitors who recognize the boat she has painted and can tell her about its history.
This year, fellow artist Helen Broadfoot has turned to Malaka for some advice on how to begin using watercolour. Broadfoot generally paints with oils but suffered a shoulder injury.
"This winter I tried watercolours where I could sit down and keep my elbow tucked in," she says. As soon as her shoulder healed, she gravitated back to oils. "I can add white to oils to show light," she points out, "but not to watercolour."Light is Broadfoot's underlying factor in this show. It appears in her light-hearted theme paintings of the natural world. A lover of birds and animals, Broadfoot has depicted many creatures: pygmy owls from a photograph taken on Quadra Island, wolf pups howling and raccoon kittens raiding a grapevine. Her swan picture entitled First Light captures a feeling of the morning's tranquility.
"It's not just visual; I like to paint character into the pieces," she says.
A Celebration of Light will be open to the public every day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., including the Easter holidays. The artists' reception is Saturday, April 8, from 1 to 4 p.m.Broadfoot will be busy this month. Another exhibition, one that opened last year and is now setting its sights world wide, A Show of Respect, will also appear in April at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery. The 10 paintings in this body of work depict children affected by war. They are not sentimental, though the images are sad. The show underscores the violation of basic human rights for the children of war. Children die, children are forced to become soldiers or captured and sold into brothels, children are displaced and spend their young lives as refugees. A major component of each piece is the inclusion of one of the articles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights painted on the canvas in the language of the child depicted in the painting. Shamrocks for Danny, for example, depicts a little girl in troubled Ireland mourning for her lost brother, with the words written in Gaelic. The originals are not for sale, but prints can be ordered to raise funds for Doctors Without Borders. The paintings can be seen on Broadfoot's website www.oilpaintingforpeace.com.
GPAG director Esther North points out that the Paintings for Peace / Doctors Without Borders acknowledgment sets the exhibition apart from an average show and is underscored by the show's sponsors, the doctors of Gibsons Medical Clinic. A Show of Respect runs April 15 through May 28 with an opening reception on April 15 from 2 to 4 p.m.
