Watercolour artist Rich Rawling turns an unfortunate travel situation into art in his series entitled 鈥淛ars. Boats. Trees.鈥�
On a recent biking tour in Asia, Rawling was forced into some down time, which resulted in omnipresent creative stimulation. 鈥淚 was sick as a dog in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma). I spent the few hours of the day when I wasn鈥檛 lying in bed sitting beside the Yangon River taking reference photos of wooden boats,鈥� says Rawling.
He has been creating art pieces since he was young and remembers that he became excited about using oil pastels in junior high. Later he turned to watercolours but found the fluid medium difficult to control, so his process naturally evolved. 鈥淢y work used to be too messy,鈥� he says. 鈥淐areful reference to lights, darks and patterns and the tight initial guidelines formed by masking tape and a knife now help to keep my broad strokes under control.鈥�
Rawling looks to an eclectic range of historical artists for inspiration 鈥� from the old masters to graffiti activists 鈥� with admiration for capturing space and form using broad strokes. 鈥淐laude Monet is a prime innovator in this sense. But I also find inspiration from Egon Schiele, David Milne and even Banksy,鈥� he says.
And like far too many modest artists, Rawling is humble to a flaw when he predicts that he will never quite be satisfied. 鈥淓ven if I paint for a thousand years, watercolour will remain an elusive challenge,鈥� he says.
Beyond art and painting in cool colours, his other passions are food, bicycles and hot weather.
Rawling鈥檚 work is on display at the Foyer Gallery this month. For more information contact [email protected]
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In this technological age of keyboards and touch-screens, a presumption exists that handwriting will soon go extinct. But optimistic calligraphic artist Paul Li doesn鈥檛 agree. He is doing his best to keep his ancient art form respected and valued.
In the display cases at the Foyer Gallery in February, Li presents 鈥楪reat Expressions鈥� calligraphy, instinctual beautiful writing that is a visual art. With an expressive manner and skillful execution, Li鈥檚 modern take on calligraphy presents functional inscriptions in Chinese and translates them into English, creating harmonious designs with words, signs or characters.
Originally from Hong Kong, Li is a Chinese calligrapher but has been a Canadian citizen for almost 30 years, residing in Vancouver. He has been dedicated to this age-old art form for 51 years and over the decades has intuitively created his own unique style by infusing self-innovations into his art from three streams of calligraphy.
To create his fine art, Li starts with pairing the meaning of his character with a coloured background of archival paper. Li鈥檚 principal tools are writing ink and brushes, although some calligraphers use a broad-tip pen. He authenticates his pieces with his signature seal and frames the finished art.
Art calligraphy continues to flourish in specialty forms of wedding and event invitations, font and logo design and memorial documents.
Li is also a translator (for Mandarin and Cantonese speech or script). He creates commissioned calligraphic art and is looking to adopt students to keep this ancient art alive. Contact Paul Li at 1-604-729-4568.
听The gallery this month also features youth art from Quest University students 鈥� a multinational student collection representing artists from Squamish, Brazil, Ontario and Portland, to name just a few.
听Meet this month鈥檚 artists at their reception at the gallery on Monday, Feb. 15 from 6 to 8 p.m.
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Toby Jaxon is the curator of the Foyer Gallery, located at the Squamish Public Library.
