The Pear Tree

Archive for the ‘Artist Studio Tours’ Category

Kelowna artist Dawn Emerson’s studio has so much in common with her artwork, it’s hard to tell where one begins and the other one ends. The mixed media artist, who likes paper and layers and keepsakes that mean something, fills her canvases and her room with lots of each.

She’s been pumping out her large-scale artworks since finishing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at UBC: Okanagan (then Okanagan University College) about 10 years ago.

Since then, she’s added a teaching degree to her list of qualifications, and now combines the two to work with school kids, adults with developmental disabilities, and to teach community art classes.

“I have done commercial art in the past, but right now my focus is on making art for art’s sake,” Dawn told The Pear Tree. “Sometimes, when you’re making artwork with a social issue it’s not really sellable, but I want to have a voice.”

Memories are a big theme in Dawns work, and her basement studio is replete with reminders and mementos of people and events that are important to her.

When she moved into her current home, just over four years ago, she had a closet space for a studio. Her partner, Ken Pratt, added on the room she now works from. He’s since added a small storage space, too.

“I’m always running out of space – I always need something bigger,” Dawn laughs.

The walls of Dawn’s room – a private, personal space, free from disturbances – are papered in old photographs, works in progress and drawings supplied by her grandchildren.

The little table (pictured above, right) is from a sewing machine, and was Dawn’s grandmother’s.

Clustered on a shelf (below) is a collection of bottles, a metronome, clock and, among other things, a little stuffed pig Dawn’s daughter made for her when she was young.

“How can you throw things like that away,” Dawn asks, taking it down for a closer look.

Many of these keepsakes have appeared or are destined to appear in a painting. The old Underwood typewriter, borrowed from a neighbour, will star in an upcoming painting – although Dawn hasn’t decided how just yet.

“It’s just like one that was my grandfather’s that I used to use to type my essays for school and work on. I like the lines and shape of it,” she said.

Not all of the things that appear in Dawn’s paintings are replicated with the help of a brush and paint. Many of them go right in – like pages from her father’s diary (below, right). Both of Dawn’s parents suffered from dementia – one of the inspirations behind the theme of memory in her work. Dawn has incorporated original notes and scribblings by them – as well as other documentation – into her collaged work.

“It’s a way of documenting the history, the past, from before the dementia started setting in,” she said.

Of course, not everything has a story. Many things – a playing card here, a ticket stub there – have been collected along her travels, spied and harvested from the side of the road during a walk, or stumbled upon in other unexpected places, to incorporate into her work one day.

“I love playing, tearing, cutting and collecting pieces of paper and putting them in my paintings. Even if they get covered up, it makes the work more personal. It feels like it’s always growing.”

- Words and photos by Lori-Anne Poirier

Artist Patty Feist just wanted a place to turn out some art. Maybe the space over the new garage/mechanical room, she suggested to her husband, Bill, when he was drawing up the plans. Knowing her husband like she does, she shouldn’t have been surprised that what started out as a wish for a simple studio turned into a space with no comfort overlooked.

That includes hardwood floors, a stunning view, a full kitchen, and a shower in the bathroom.

“I told him that all I need is a sink to rinse my brushes and an outlet to make coffee, but he doesn’t like to do things half way. I don’t think I’ll ever use the shower, so right now I’m storing canvases in it,” Patty related.

The inspiring, loft-like 650 square-foot space was waiting for her when she returned from Northern California last spring, where she was taking art classes during her annual “art trip.”

“This is just a dream for me,” she said. “It is a space built with love, by my husband, who wanted to give me a great gift. A gift of my own space. A space to inspire and to grow. I can think of no better gift an artist can receive.”

While most of the building and finishing touches were taken care of by contractors, Bill added his own personal touch to the space by doing all the tiling and flooring himself.

Patty has filled the space with her own artwork, and with furnishings and accessories that help give the room an inspiring atmosphere.

The old desk (above left) and leather theatre seats (above right) came from Lois Lane Antiques Warehouse in Kelowna. The theatre seats were originally from the Penticton theatre.

The first floor entrance to her second storey studio (above left), and a peek into her studio powder room (above right).

Patty bought the old wooden box that now holds tubes of oil paints (above left) from Country Tree House in Kelowna. The smoothly polished coloured rocks (above right) were picked off a beach in NoCal that was covered in thousands of the naturally polished treasures.

The plaque, which reads, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away,” is a mantra of sorts for Patty.

Eight years ago she was in a car accident, and a year later another one (neither her fault, she stresses). In the early stages of her recovery, Patty said, she couldn’t move her head or even carry a coffee cup across the room.

Rather than feeling sorry for herself, the uber active mother of two boys decided pretty quickly to focus on the things she could do, rather than mourn the things she could no longer do. She challenged herself to try three new things that year, which she did. The first was to go on an adventure by herself (having married and started a family young, she had never travelled by herself up to that point). She also took a photography course, and a watercolour class.

While Patty’s art education was originally limited to high school art class, her travels since her accident have combined her passions and given her the opportunity to hone her artistic skills in such locales as California, New York and Italy.

With a sweeping view of the forested hillside, Patty said her studio offers her a welcoming place to express herself as an artist, or just daydream.

“I imagine my pieces might show more of an inner peace since moving in here,” she said. “You look out this beautiful window at the beautiful mountains and how can you not be at peace here? My work was always pretty peaceful, but now I think it’s more so.”

Patty has dubbed her retreat the Little Light Studio, named after the song This Little Light of Mine. She said she thought of the name when she heard the song on the radio one day and applied it to her passion for art. She says that once she found this metaphorical light in her life, all she wanted to do is let it shine. Look for her work to be posted on www.littlelightartist.com in a few weeks time.

- Words and photos by Lori-Anne Poirier

They say that the kitchen is the heart of the home. And nestled into a corner of Liz Van Golen’s kitchen (formerly Liz Woodside) is a little art studio – if not the heart beat than certainly an important artery for her life and home.

Liz, who married recently and chose to go back to her maiden name, started making art in 1995. Her distinctive style mixes calligraphy with watercolour or acrylic paints, and ranges from cards to business logos to framed artwork .

She lives on the heritage-heavy Abbott Street and says she can put up with little quirks such as worn and gauged floors in order to feed her love of old things.

While Liz has a larger room up stairs that she uses to store a lot of her art supplies, she prefers her kitchen nook for a couple of reasons. Most importantly, she suffers from arthritis and tries to avoid the stairs. But even if that wasn’t a deterrent, Liz says there’s something about working where she does that just feels right.

“I like the kitchen. I can make a cup of tea and it’s right there. It’s comfortable, and I can use the cupboards and counter tops as art props for large canvasses and other bigger projects.”

The little space is full to brimming with books, brushes, pens and little bottles of ink, favourite photos and sentimental keepsakes.

While Liz’s bookshelves hold a variety of tomes, from art and calligraphy books to gardening books and cookbooks, there is a larger than average number of dictionaries in her collection. As a calligrapher, she finds that just the right  wording of a definition, paired with an appropriate font, can make a painting.

Prior to becoming an artist, Liz studied Art in Merchandising at Langara College in Vancouver, and Interior Design at the former Okanagan University College.

In her artist statement, Liz said, “Art allows me to experience the mystery of life. It becomes a communication vehicle for my spirit.”

About a year ago, Liz was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma and took some time off from art to focus on treatment. She’s just recently picked up her brushes again, and is feeling once again inspired.

In addition to putting pens and brushes to paper for herself once again, Liz will also be teaching a weekend watercolour workshop next month at the Kelowna Art Gallery. Some of her work is currently on show at her daughter, Alyssa Woodside’s, downtown gallery, A Woodside Design Gallery.

- Words and photos by Lori-Anne Poirier

Virginia Woolf said that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” The same might be said about the woman who wants to paint pictures, as artist Meghan Wise will attest.

The Kelowna-based wife and mother of one gave up her downtown studio several years ago because she couldn’t actually use it when it was convenient for her – namely, when her daughter Tenille, now age 12, was napping, or when inspiration struck in the middle of the night.

For a while she set up a makeshift studio in her tiny dining room area, attached to her kitchen. But while it was an easily accessible location, dismantling everything and putting away her art supplies before meal times proved to be, shall we say, disruptive of the creative flow.

Just over six years ago, however, Meghan and her husband, Lindsay, split their back yard garage with a wall running down the middle, giving her a space of her own to create the art she wants when she wants to.

“Now I have a place that’s totally mine, to come and create, and I don’t have to clean up part way through a painting so that we can have breakfast, lunch or dinner. I can leave a work in progress,” she told The Pear Tree. “It’s nice to have a space you can create any mood you like to make you feel most productive.”

Meghan has filled her small but fertile space with mementos and reminders of what inspires her. From old postcards and photographs to airmail stickers, feathers and butterfly wings, inspiration breaks in everywhere.

Many of those things have made it onto one canvas or another, or likely will if they haven’t yet.

The small child, pictured above, is Meghan as a toddler. Her penchant for painting started early, and while she no longer gets more paint on herself than the canvas, the self-taught artist still throws herself into her work.

“Every piece I collect, there’s a reason I collect it. It inspires me for painting – that’s why there are so many articles around,” she said. “By surrounding myself with these things I keep myself connected to that spirit, those thoughts.”

Asked what she thinks that reveals about her, Meghan says that she’s the kind of artist who likes lots of little details – in her work and in her work space.

She’s also a lover of old things, and has a growing collection of furnishings and accessories with a history, as well as furnishings that were not pumped out in the thousands by a machine.

“I like the quality of a handmade item and how it lasts. I think it’s kind of a dying art form, for people to make crafted items. I think of myself as a rescuer of some of these old things,” she said.

The table she paints on belonged to a former neighbour’s grandmother when she was a child. She prefers it to other tables she could use to paint on because of that history and accompanying character. Using it as she does, Meghan feels, she is adding to its story.

When she is done with it, she plans to remove the top and keep it as her own personal art work, built up with layers of paint from so many of her paintings.

Colourful ink bottles line a shelf near Meghan’s main painting desk.

Across the room, a stack of books give a clue to some of Meghan’s art influences. However her work also boasts some musical influences, since she loves painting to a soundtrack of Nina Simone, Bon Iver, Cat Power and Neko Case.

“I take it all in while I’m doing detail work. Music is really important because it ties in so deeply with a mood,” Meghan said.

From the purple stucco on the exterior of the garage to the multitude of original paintings lining the walls, Meghan tries to keep her space as distinctive and original as her art, and a place that is truly her own.

Words and photos by Lori-Anne Poirier

Ambling through the winding back roads of Oyama in the Okanagan’s Lake Country, more than one barn – derelict or new and in use – dots the landscape.

Only one, however, has the distinction of housing a treasure trove of local, original art. It’s called The Barn Gallery, and it’s located at 4450 Towgood Road. And, while it is a commercial gallery and not a working artist studio, it was different enough that we wanted to showcase it as part of our Artist Studio Tours series.

This week the gallery celebrates its 10th anniversary and the fulfillment of a long time dream of owner Jody LaFontaine’s.

“I’ve always wanted a gallery,” Jody told The Pear Tree during a recent visit. “I’m so inspired by the art here in the Okanagan.”

Jody was the founder and original organizer of Winfield’s popular Art Walk, now operated by the District of Lake Country, when it started 16 years ago. Her mandate, she says, is simply to promote artists and their art, and make it available to those who love it, too.

“I love all forms of art. I love sculpture and I love paintings. Each one has something unique about it.

“I really want artists to be successful themselves. I suppose that’s the mandate or purpose of this gallery. I want artists to be able to continue on with their careers.”

Jody received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Toronto years ago, and thought she would like to paint, but soon decided that there were others who were so much better. However, she has proved that the presentation of others’ art and the backdrop for doing that can be a work of art in itself.

After looking for venues in town, Jody got the idea for converting her old horse barn and equipment shed into a barn after visiting a gallery called The Red Barn a couple of hours outside New York City. That gallery had been started in the 1930s, and has been run by members of the same family ever since.

Like hers, it is operated on a rural piece of property and is a destination visit.

The Barn Gallery barn, which is just a few yards from Jody’s house, was built in 1940 and was a regular horse barn with stalls along both sides and a trough running down the middle. Upstairs, the hayloft was filled with bales of hay. Attached was a tractor shed.

Jody worked with her son Mark, a carpenter, to gut the structure and rebuild the inside into something worthy of housing fine art.

Little could be salvaged, aside from the deep, stone outside walls, the ceiling with its chunky wooden beams (that still have the bark on one side) and a few inner support posts.

“It was in pretty bad shape,” Jody said. “On a really hot day, it still smells like a horse barn. It had a concrete floor, which the horses peed into and it’s hard to completely eliminate that smell.”

On the other hand, the cozy country structure offers a look and history that compliments the art it shows off.

“I like to think it’s a good pairing because the barn is authentic. Nothing is a façade. Since we only carry original art, it compliments that. When people come here, they get the feeling that everything just fits. Everything works here. You don’t see any disconnect between the art and its surroundings.”

While most vestiges of the old barn are now gone, there are some remaining elements. Behind the closet door is a well that once supplied water to the horses who called the place home.

The tractor shed, featured in the montage above, is floored with boards recycled from a horse fence on Jody’s property. The windows were salvaged from the former Oyama General Store before its destruction.

Three things Jody looks for in design as well as art are colour, form and complexity. And she loves the juxtaposition of abstract and realism.

“It gives that little edge that’s so nice,” she said.

Being surrounded by so much art in such a unique setting, Jody feels, enhances her sense of aesthetics.

“I have something beautiful to be in every day,” she said.

The Barn Gallery is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. between the May long weekend and Thanksgiving. For more information, email barngallery@shaw.ca.

- Words and photos by Lori-Anne Poirier