This month at the public library's Foyer Gallery, visitors can escape into artists' dreams.
On the walls at the Foyer Gallery Joan Skeet offers her mixed media, oil on canvas and charcoal drawing and monotype on paper through her display, Return to the Dream.
Each piece, with repeated viewings, takes you into the depths of the subconscious while clever symbolic imagery provokes contemplation and interpretation.
"I was intrigued by both the apparent strength and the apparent fragility of songbirds and nests as a metaphor for life," said Skeet. "The nests themselves became increasingly symbolic the more I worked with them, speaking of the womb, of life, of nurturing, of abandonment, and of death."
Her style combines transparent subdued tones and a limited yet complex colour palette with stalwart concentration and textural density.
Passionately inspired by the natural world, energy and forces, Skeet has been doing art all of her life.
"I have never not made art," she said.
Her education includes private art classes, mentoring, several art degrees and she has been exhibiting in public and private galleries and art spaces since 1989. And throughout those years, her art has evolved "considerably," said Skeet.
"I have gone from the relatively small botanical and landscape pieces of my 20s, to the large complex contemporary abstract expressionist pieces in oils that I am doing today."
She said her most significant growth has been over the last four years since she left her permanent job to become a full time painter. And isn't this every artist's dream? Skeet is living it.
For more information contact her at www.joanskeet.com.
Like a true West Coast artist, the sea, stones and the surrounding colours are broad inspirations for Ellen Crystal. In the Foyer Gallery showcases, Crystal presents a wistful array of jewellery, abstract photography and paintings.
Crystal is hard to pin down. Initially, she worked only in jewellery using sterling silver and semi-precious stones such as smoky quartz, apatite, aqua marine and snakeskin jasper. Now on display, Crystal has launched her latest collection in warm copper juxtaposed with many of those naturally superb cooler coloured stones.
Originally working as a commercial career photographer, Crystal became interested in what she describes as her passion for "painting with photography." These are images that look like abstract painted striated landscapes, but look again - they are actually enlarged photographs taken using a unique technique that presents photography in dreamy perspective.
"These images open the door to more creative interpretation than literal photography," she said.
Crystal also recently decided to delve into the medium of painting as her newest exploration in artistic growth. Lost in the creative process, she has realized her painting style inadvertently mimics her photography.
Crystal said she feels working in a series gives her collection more cohesion, unity and strength. Finding these progressions that tie one piece to another has obviously contributed to her emerging style.
Contact Crystal at 604 760-0674 or www.ellencrystal.com.
