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With seasonal moderated restraint, we waited until Dec. 1 to fill the cases with a sampling of over a dozen artists and artisan wares presenting a showcase of what’s to come in the Foyer Gallery’s Artisan Holiday Celebration. 

This year, the artisans’ group show highlights the Sea to Sky Potters’ Guild as well as examples of the artwork from all of the vendor participants in what has turned into an annual Christmas festivity. This variety of wares will be on display for the month of December, but don’t miss the sale and celebration event in the library this weekend, Friday, Dec. 4 to Sunday, Dec. 6. This free event will include live music, art demos, art raffles and baking. Patrons are invited to shop for local handmade pottery, jewelry, gifts, paintings, photographs, art cards, felted hats, hand-knit mittens and more. Stop by for a coffee and a treat. 

Recently, the Sea to Sky Potters have been up to some exciting stuff: experimenting as a group with Obvara firing. This is an old Eastern Europe technique involving scalding a finish on the pottery to seal the porous surface. The bisqued (pre-fired) pieces are heated by a propane torch to approximately 898 degrees Celsius in a simple, homemade oil drum lined with ceramic fibre, then removed and dunked into a fermented Obvara mixture (warm water, flour, sugar and yeast) and dunked in water to rapidly cool the piece. 

Come and check out the results. The pottery is unexpected and beautiful, with colours and textures ranging from translucent off white to caramels, greys and almost black with speckles and patterning resembling weathered rock, old wood, mosses, leather and lichen.

On the walls, I present my own artwork, a series of investigations and #Hashtag paintings. Why is it titled #Hashtag? Well, because of its widespread use, hashtag was recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary and at the same time, the hashtag symbol # started strangely appearing in my paintings. So I ran with the concept, having a blast by consciously painting in marks with more hashes and tags.

My compositions are typically derived from the vastness and mystery of nature, but these dynamic renditions are precise but at the same time filled with more obscurity. I paint scenes that flourish in vivid contrasting colour and multiple perspectives spanning our seasons. But my experimenting doesn’t end there. I’ve also been developing a more animated painting technique in my abstract series Here’s the Skinny – organic progressions of vibrant and colourful acrylic skins. 

My art is a relationship of colour shapes using a variety of deliberate strokes, in techniques that create dynamic renditions – shock effects that challenge the viewer’s experience. See more at www.tobyjaxon.com.

Celebration this weekend

Meet artists during a celebration all weekend long including the Sea to Sky Potters, Vanessa Cunningham, Toby Jaxon, Keely Kidner, Mia Lauzon, Judy McQuinn, Angela Muellers, Susan Remnant, Michiko Splinter, Sarah Symes, Linda Wagner, Elena Whitman, Cindy Watson and Katie Yaremkewich. 

The weekend also features art demonstrations by Vanessa Cunningham, Alice Guss, Angela Muellers and Fran Solar, and musical performances by The Christmas Belles (Rita Kyle, Jane Gillie and Mary Mitchell), Carolyn Grass and Friends and Sofie Hill’s fun fiddling combining Celtic tunes with traditional Christmas songs.