The year 2011 is looking to be a good one for Squamish artist Lani Imre.
Not only is she expecting a new baby "any minute," but on Jan. 6 the Whistler Arts Council honoured her with the 2010 Artist Award of Excellence in the professional artist category.
"It's pretty neat," she said. "It's a great gesture of support."
Whistler sketch artist and painter Paige Keith won the award in the emerging artist category.
The Artist Awards of Excellence are the result of an initiative by the Whistler2020 Arts, Culture and Heritage Task Force to develop a program in which the community could publicly recognize Sea to Sky Corridor artists for their artistic achievements.
Each recipient will receive a $1,000 prize and the opportunity to hold a future exhibit at the Scotia Creek Gallery in Whistler's Millennium Place.
"The bursary is definitely a help," Imre said, "especially with a baby on the way."
Originally from the Salmon Arm area, Imre divides her time between California, Mexico and Squamish, where she's lived for the past year and a half.
"I love it here. It's very suited to my lifestyle," she said. "And being situated between Whistler and Vancouver, it is also very good for my work."
Imre's beautiful paintings can be seen around Squamish in various eateries, or at The House of RTS on Cleveland Avenue.
Dreamy and colourful, her vivid paintings depict a variety of stylized female characters.
"I've done lots of arts education, but I came to painting late in life," she said.
Imre holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University and a diploma from the Kootenay School of the Arts. She also has an extensive background in sculptural ceramics, drawing and printmaking, in addition to her painting.
"I took a painting class, but I was already well into defining my artistic vision, so I found the class very constraining," she said. "After I left art school I continued painting, but I was looking at things like comics, graffiti and urban art. Eventually I developed a style that was everything I was told not to do in art school. Of course, that's not indicative of all my work."
The female characters in her paintings are something she's been drawing for some time, she said.
"I was in Halifax and my friend was in Montreal, and she would do a chick drawing and send it to me, and then I'd do a drawing and send it to her," she said. "I've always been captivated by females in my life. And the work is quite self-referential as well."
Imre has understandably been taking it easier lately while waiting for the baby to arrive; however, she has still been working.
"I've been saying no to show requests," she said. "I'm working on a new body of work, though. I'm kind of doing it backwards, because usually I work for a show deadline, but now I'm getting the work together first and then I will approach galleries."
Imre said she has her sights set on some galleries in California and Europe.
In the meantime, you can see her work at The House of RTS in Squamish, the Ayden Gallery in Vancouver, or online at www.bocaseda.com.
