The Avenue Gallery highlights artists Becky Holuk, Corre Alice and Bruce Edmundson this month in Oak Bay.
Calgary-based Holuk works primarily in acrylic paint on canvas. She studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design, earning an Illingworth Kerr Award for proficiency in drawing and design. After working full-time in the field of graphic design and illustration for 10 years, Holuk shifted to focus solely on her passion for fine art painting.
She considers it a blessing to be part of the connection that artwork provides between artist and viewer and has discovered that hikes and walks in the natural, majestic beauty of the Alberta foothills, Canadian Rockies and the West Coast are favourite times to “observe, record and reflect” for later artistic pursuits in the studio. Holuk sees each painting as an opportunity to form a joyful and grateful response in colour and motion to what she has had the privilege to experience in the natural world.
Alice’s paintings often explore the relationship between the emotional and the intellectual and are an intuitive response with distinctly personal marks. “When I paint flowers, bees and trees it’s with a light heart and gratitude for this world of ours. It’s about colour and joy,” she said.
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Edmundson began wood carving in the early 1990s while working in the forest industry doing timber development and silviculture work. Interest in high-quality wood was a natural development of working in the B.C. forests. He takes a special interest in the unusual such as burls. For Edmundson, the abnormal growths demonstrate the characteristics that people cherish in wood.
“I have learned that to experiment and take risks is to court success. I want to express the natural splendour of the wood while enhancing it with the human touch. I want it to be unique, the hand of one person enabling nature’s inherent strengths and beauty. I try to do that by testing both the limits of my skills and the assets of the nature I am working on,” Edmundson said.
For more information visit theavenuegallery.com.
Madrona Gallery hosts artist Guthrie Gloag for an artist reception June 11 to kick off a solo exhibition that runs through June 25.
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Madrona presents the highly anticipated fourth solo exhibition featuring Gloag’s most recent collection. The work takes inspiration from an extended period of introspection. The world stage in 2020 and 2021 left Gloag unable to travel to his normal locations for material inspiring a greater level of ingenuity that allowed him to adapt to a new way of creating work.
The artist is in attendance June 11 from 1 to 3 p.m. For more information visit madronagallery.com.
West End Gallery offers Memories of Travel From Another Time by Paul Jorgensen starting June 4.
Jorgensen attended the Vancouver School of Art, now Emily Carr School of Art and Design. His education was heavily influenced by the “hard edge” paintings (flat coloured panels in structured grids) in vogue. Still, the Group of Seven, The Impressionists and magazine illustrators provided him with inspiration, as they still do. These artists, in most cases, hint at a story in a specific landscape that intrigues him. He tries to incorporate an open gate, a glimpse of a car, or a path as it hints at a person in the scene that the viewer just missed.
Jorgensen’s latest collection of playful landscapes features the bright colours, intricate patterns and joyful vignettes he is known for. His unique approach to painting is enhanced by skewed perspectives and prolific use of intertwined shapes and forms revealed as lush gardens, secret paths and distant locations. Jorgensen’s narrative style further encourages the viewer to immerse themselves in his paintings and travel from the comfort of home.
The show runs June 4 to 16. Visit westendgalleryltd.com for details.
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The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria brings a retrospective of more than 130 paintings by beloved late Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis. Making its only B.C. stop on a cross-Canada tour, the much-anticipated exhibition opens with a free public open house June 18 and is on view through Oct. 16.
Lewis’ mastery of colour, endless compositional variety and exuberant vernacular style mark her as one of Canada’s most formally inventive folk artists. From whimsical patterns of cats and kittens, to rustic images of horse-drawn carts and oxen, to breezy scenes of ships in the harbour, the exhibition will give west coast audiences an opportunity to enjoy Lewis’ cheerful depictions of rural life on Canada’s east coast.
The exhibition is accompanied by a colour, hardback catalogue featuring a lead essay by Sarah Milroy, with reproductions of all exhibition works.
For more information visit aggv.ca.
Rande Cook presents The Apology at Leaf Modern Gallery now through June 11.
On April 1, Pope Francis apologized to First Nations, Inuit and Metis gathered at the Vatican in Rome. The artist draws on this history with 11 mixed-media artworks.
Visit artopenings.ca/rande-cook for details.
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