Lisa Riehl

I have always been Inspired by Nature. I love to simplify what I’m seeing and translate it into the feeling of being outside with nothing between me and nature, or the feeling of tranquility and vibrancy that is all around me. Nature’s beauty is all around us to see, touch and hear. It has a way of affecting our moods and it can help us to change our way of thinking for the better, from negative to positive. I believe that being exposed to Nature’s beauty can have a positive effect on our lives, in the way we look at things and the way we feel about ourselves. Perhaps my paintings can help bring this feeling of wonder and peace to others.

Each painting I create feels like a poem that is made visible. I can’t just give them boring names - they deserve so much more! So I title each painting with a phrase that, at least to me, evokes incredible meaning in my heart.

Christine Code

The ever changing nature and vast expanses of the "Land of the Living Skies" are commonly explored themes in my paintings. Working in oils, I enjoy the techniques of Impressionism and Tonalism as I aim to convey a particular mood or atmosphere in each piece, using varied brushwork and palette knife application to create interesting passages.

I regularly paint en plein air, taking my easel outdoors into the rolling hills and sprawling farmland. The knowledge gained through direct observation outdoors informs my larger paintings in the studio.

As an avid gardener and bird lover, I also derive much inspiration from my own back yard."

Dale Byhre

From rocky shorelines and the working boats along the West Coast, to the fighting ships of the World War II, my strong appreciation for both ships and the sea compels me to depict them with accuracy and reverence.

Shelley Wuitchik

For me, painting with encaustic creates a state of totipotentia: a latin term meaning the ability for all things. Encaustic painting is filled with such potential. Since the medium is incredibly malleable and fluid, I am able to mix it with vibrant pigments and embed sculptural elements. I seek to illustrate the flow of water, the dense weight of the earth and the flashy and volatile qualities of fire. I hope the luminosity and movement of my work offers the viewer the same spontaneity and transformation I experience as I paint.

Gail Johnson

I feel privileged to have so much to paint - such beauty and rich, grounded experiences to draw from. I follow my brush . . . and taste the color.

Susie Cipolla

The myriad techniques employed in my creative process are as varied as the themes that inspire me. While layering opaque paints and transparent glazes to create depth, my signature darks from the blend of my favourite transparent colours will frequently appear as the base. Keeping the palette relatively limited, I work with neutrals derived from the opposites on the colour wheel, balancing the values, temperature, shapes, forms and textures to create pieces that range from subtle monochromatic semi-abstract expressions to dynamic, purely abstract visual raptures of saturated colours.

Martin Pryce

Nature inspires and influences my work—from serene landscapes to abstract expressions. Its diversity fuels my creativity, leading to a collection that captures its essence. Each drawing and painting reflects my encounters with nature's beauty, power and awe.

Art embodies my life's philosophy, echoing Robert Frost's words: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” My art balances nature's call with the artist's journey, each piece marking progress on this path. It's an expression of commitment to art, nature, and inner exploration.

My art journey is a continuous quest. I aim to engage viewers deeply, inviting them into a journey of discovery. Each painting represents a commitment to exploring new territories in art, nature, and within, honouring the promises made to my creative spirit.

Kristina Boardman

I am endlessly intrigued with painting stones - the varied color, texture and beautiful markings. I am often holding them as I paint, and they give me a feeling of peace and tranquility. I create a simple line drawing as a place to begin on the canvas, with the composition coming from my imagination. I then use the actual stones as reference for shape and tone and interesting features. It is my own version of what I see along Canada’s beautiful coastlines.

Laila Jensen

I’m inspired by the outrageous yet casual beauty that is all around us all the time. Nature is very extravagant. Texture, form and especially line are elements I love to convey and distort. And exploring the secret life of trees is the perfect muse for me.
Mixed media is my artistic home. I usually create in layers, starting with washes, plasters, pastes and all kinds of paper – origami, textured fibre, tissue, etc. I have a huge collection of papers and rarely leave an art store without a new one. I also use metallic leaf, ink, ink pencils, pastes, gels, chalk pastels and charcoal. Each painting has its own story and back story. And through the layers emerge mystical and charming little surprises. I hope to entertain my viewers and collectors as much as I was entertained by the creation of the piece.

Aleksandra Kalinic

To me painting is a powerful way to grow inside, communicate, explore and be free. Through creative process I get to know myself and the world better, and strive to express emotion and beauty of the moment.

Painting old towns, houses, roofs, windows feels like special kind of traveling. In some quiet, unobtrusive way they hide so many different lives and destinies but also have a life of their own. I am inspired by charming places I have visited and by people I met there, performers, dancers and passers-by on the street. Dancers fascinate me with their passion for beauty of the movement and joy of performing.

Using playful palette I strive to create poetic work filled with life, tenderness and a dose of hidden nostalgia and childlike imagination. I want to create the place where everything is connected in some beautiful way.

Through my portraits I study emotions and personalities as well as my relationship with the person if I know them well. I realize how fragile life is and treasure every moment I have with people I love so I challenge myself to see how well I will be able to express my love for them through my paintings.

For me art is a fascinating journey, with always present thought about simultaneity of beauty and fragility of life. 

Kato Rempel

Figure painting is my primary passion. My figurative oil paintings often embody a sense of longing for the unknown. We feel this in the dichotomy between what we see and what exists in our own inner world of our mind. In pushing subject matter, my figurative works range from expression of intimacy and connectedness to a narrative of strength and blossoming womanhood.

Claire Christinel

I am inspired by the quality of light and shadow on an object, creating beauty and drama. An ordinary object turning from the light, can become an extraordinary object when interpreted in paint. That, combined with the colour, pattern or mood of a scene inspires me to want to capture that moment in paint. My passion is to create a perfect balance of realism and painterly interpretation in my works.

Sharon Stone

I have been leaning towards abstraction the more I paint and even when I’m doing representational paintings and landscapes, there tends to be an element of abstraction in them. Shapes and colors really appeal to me. I love geometric forms and they appear throughout my paintings. The designs behind my paintings often emerge from focusing my attention on negative painting in the backspace and interesting color relationships, resulting in works of art that weave in and out of abstraction.

Ken Campbell

Painters wield light and shadow to forge narratives. It is the shadows that give volume and solidity to objects; that suggest depth and distance that hold the promise to be revealed in time by light or keep obfuscated indefinitely. I have found that it is in the middle tones, the half-light, the partial shadows… where so much interesting stuff is revealed.