2003 – 2004 Exhibitions

In Time for Christmas

November 10 – December 12, 2004

Gifts and activities for the entire family abounded as the Gallery mounted an impressive juried selection of artworks in many mediums expanding the gift shop selection and introduced two new Christmas Programs for adults and children:

Journey Through the Art of Christmas opened with GPAG’s 20-minute art history video as Esther North took groups of seekers on guided tours of the history and symbolism found in the works of the Masters as well as fresh new impressions by contemporary Artists.

Gifts For the Children illuminated the story of the First Christmas as special guests brought their own gifts of story and song to a series of lively arts workshops for children.

The cost? Participating children were asked to bring a gift for the Food Bank or a toy for the Elves Club program.

Gibsons Now!

September 29 – November 7, 2004

A multi-medium exhibition of contemporary art took a look at Gibsons, it’s people, resources, industry, culture and arts as we wrapped up a year of celebrating the Town’s 75th anniversary.

Fabulous Fibres

August 11 – September 26, 2004

We may no longer need to line the walls of our homes with tapestries to shelter us from cold drafts, but we still do hang them, just one example of how the fibre arts that were part of every domestic scene for millennia continue to bring warmth and beauty to contemporary lives. A striking exhibition of quilting, weaving, hand-painted silk, tapestries and wall hangings, art dolls, and wearing apparel by Sunshine Coast artists were collected for this exhibition of Fabulous Fibres.

Timed to celebrate the 5th Annual Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival. Weaving demonstrations with the Sunshine Coast Weavers and Spinners Guild as part of Gibsons Public Art Gallery’s Artist in Residence program.

Patricia Richardson-Logie : Lifescapes

July 7 – August 8, 2004

A lifetime of achievement…
An exhilarating exhibition of more than forty outstanding oil paintings compiled from the artist’s extensive body of work. Bold brushwork in the bravura style of painting captures the vibrant life force of her subjects.

Guest Curator: Donna Hobbs

Retrospective: A lifetime of Logie
Review, Jan De Grass — Coast Reporter, 2004
How to display a lifetime of achievement — over 30 years of art — in one show? That’s the challenge for the Gibson’s Public Art Gallery this month when they open a retrospective, Lifescapes, of the work of Hopkins Landing artist Patricia Richardson Logie. Logie is a prolific, talented and professional artist, a signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and a founding member of the Canadian Institute of Portrait Artists. Though her subject matter varies widely, she has specialized in portraiture, often by commission, and considers her crowning achievement to be a collection of 31 paintings of aboriginal people entitled Chronicles of Pride.

The Gibson’s Public Art Gallery is a little gallery, with less than a year of existence, staffed by volunteers, yet they were not daunted by this huge project. Guest curator Donna Hobbs was eager. Hobbs is new to the coast, about one year; she has minored in art, studied interior design and once ran a business making artistic custom furniture. She met Logie only recently and the two clicked. Hobbs was immediately caught up in the scope of
Logie’s work, the quality, the diversity and how hungry Logie was to talk about it.

“This show is a natural fit for the Coast,” Hobbs says. “An artist of such quality lives here and not everyone has seen her work.” Hobbs helped Logie date and catalogue the work, and then selected the pieces from various stages of her career.
“She’s chosen pieces I would never have thought to put in a show,” says Logie, including work from her student days in London. The show of 48 paintings, mostly oil on canvas, depicts a variety of scenes including rainy days spent in the studio, the canyons and scenery of B.C. under the hot Okanagan sun, local scenes, two engaging pictures of children in the choir, gypsy faces and a few of her rich and sensual nudes that capture the beauty of form and light. The paintings should stand alone, says Hobbs, and part of the mandate of the gallery is simply to show the work of local artists for all to enjoy.

Like any true artist, Logie is most excited by her latest work, something new and almost abstract. She had a stroke just before Christmas, she explains, with the attendant loss of sensation in her fingers. She can’t complete the fine brushwork necessary for portraits, so she’s painting big and broad now.

“I always told my students not to paint with just their fingers,” she says. “Paint with your whole arm. That’s what I’m doing now, broad paintings, and I’m so excited I can’t wait to get back to them.”

Logie was born in Ontario and wanted to be a painter from the age of 12. In 1970, she moved to England to study at Sir John Cass College in London where she exhibited extensively. She has shown her work in Canada and other countries over 32 times and often holds open house in her Hopkins’ studio in the summer months.

Still Life in the City

June 2 – July 4, 2004

Gibsons Public Art Gallery was pleased to present this exhibition of photographs by Sunshine Coast Photographers. When Marina Crawford began to plan for an exhibition of photography at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, she looked to the city – Vancouver – where she and so many Coast residents make the daily commute to work.

These eleven photographers show us Vancouver from unusual perspectives. They reveal beauty in the unexpected, dignity in the unlikely, and life in the neglected corners of a city known to many as Canada’s most liveable. We commend the artists for their generosity in committing a percentage (between 20% and 100%) of their proceeds from the sale of works during this exhibition to The Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre in Vancouver.

Photographers: Daniel Bouman, Billie Carroll, Shelly Charleston, Heather Conn, Marina Crawford, Raquel Fors, Joanne Marks, Lee Roberts, Alan Sirulnikoff, Mike Steele, Alanna Wood.

Guest Curators: Charmian Dunaway, Esther North

Thursday’s Artists

May 5 – May 30, 2004

The Gallery was pleased to present this exhibition of eclectic and original paintings by sixteen talented amateurs. Thursday’s Artists began in 1995 and have been gathering weekly to create, learn and encourage each other. The group focuses strictly on painting, with some members painting on rocks, tiles or wooden and metal objects as well as paper and canvas.

Guest Curator: Cate Rimmer, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design

Wendy Harford : Portrait of an Artist

March 31 – May 2, 2004

This installation sought to engage the Gallery visitor in an intensely personal look into the life, history, and diverse creative output of the artist. The show included memorabilia and artworks by Wendy and her family in a variety of mediums: fibre arts, paper maché and found things, computer graphics, audio performance in songs and poetry, wood turning and painting.

Guest Curator: Bodhi Drope

Exploring the Medium of Collage

March 3 – March 28, 2004

Everyday materials were invested with new meaning by the six collage artists in this exhibition as they challenged the viewer to move beyond usual ways of seeing. The technique is familiar, even childlike – pasting together pieces of pictures, found objects, posters, paper, metals and fabric, wood and shells, tickets and stamps however results are remarkably engaging.

Guest Curator: Ursula Fritsch

Member Artists’ Show

February 4 – February 29, 2004

This exhibition brought together many talented artists who are members of the Gallery. Featured were a tremendous variety of paintings in various mediums, sculpture, woodwork, and fibre arts.

Guest Curators: Ursula Fritsch, Adrianne Anderson

Digital Photography

January 7 – February 1, 2004

Featured an outstanding collection of works by Aaron John Baggio and nine Sunshine Coast photographers. Digital photography is the cutting edge of the history of photography which dates back to the invention of the Daguerrotype in early 19th century by French painter Louis Jacques Daguerre. The Gallery was pleased to present this Exhibition of art employing innovative new technology.

Guest Curator: Adrianne Anderson

The Art of Christmas

December, 2003

The Art of Christmas – a retrospective on masterpieces throughout the ages, with member artists offering works for sale.

The Artists of Gambier

October, 2003

In October, 2003, The Artists of Gambier Island had a collective show of mixed media.

Inaugural Show

September, 2003

The gallery was incorporated on August 21, 2003 and opened on September 26, 2003, with an Invitational Exhibition.

The following artists took part in this first show:
Hilary Anderson – quilter
Donna Balma – mixed media
Stan Bryant – watercolour
Marina Crawford – photography
Clint Davy – Carver
Francine Desjardins – mixed media
Guy Foster – acrylic
Hugh Foster – watercolour
Jack Harman – sculpture
Shawn and Bradley Hunt – carvers
Jim’s Wooden Creations – chainsaw sculpting
Hanna Manson – ceramics
Kris Manson – painter/printmaker
Betty Pehme – digital photography
Maurice Spira – acrylic
Axel Stenzel – sculpture
Off the Wall Quilters