Resurfacing

                      

Donna-Fay Digance 

This is the second piece of fibre art in a series called 'Resurfacing' which depict glacial erratics with communities of lichens and moss. I pass these glaciated boulders on my morning walks on Payne Road on Saturna and am fascinated with their size, variety of textures and many faceted planes.
In life, we too, resurface and change many times.
I started with many photos at different angles and printed some on Pima cotton to use as part of my collage.
I painted the sky on cotton, used dyed silk, commercial fabrics, printed images on cotton, and made confetti fabric by fusing tiny bits on fusible web.  From these fabrics, I created a collage with many shapes overlapped and stitched together including a flannel centre and cotton backing to create a quilt ‘sandwich’. The surface is densely stitched with many layers of machine and free motion embroidery. This dense thread ‘painting’ or drawing forms new colours, textures, lines and details.
Finally, I used Lumiere Metallic Paint to add highlights and further texture.
The artwork is mounted on a custom made, open box frame.

I’m printing a smaller version of this finished image on Pima Cotton to mat and frame as prints.

Being Part of Art Saturna

by Janet Strayer

This is the painting that identifies me on the poster that introduced Art Saturna in the very first posting of this blog. Entitled Riders of Dawn, it's an acrylic painting that includes some gold metallic paint and mixed media on wood panel. For me, it is evocative of the natural world that surrounds us and enters into our sense of being alive. I'm more aware of living in nature on Saturna than occurs in other locations, partly because of being surrounded by the sea and trees and birds and animal life. It's important to me because I was raised as a  city girl with little experience of nature back on the eastcoast. Yet, here on Saturna, nature has always been inviting and, thankfully, kind.
  
Where in the world does one find a small, still sparsely populated island inhabited by so many inspired artists? Saturna, indeed. It’s a pleasure to be in the company of Saturna artists, some of whom have already introduced themselves on this blog.

I’m a painter, mostly of imaginative figurative works, but also of abstracts. I came to Saturna years ago, living in a large, renewable tent on a permanent platform for more than a decade until we built a house overlooking the water. Up a small hill from this haven on the unspellable (and almost undriveable) Houghquie Wynd road is my beautiful studio. Magic… all of it .

I’ve travelled through many parts of the world and am still amazed to come home to this place. It’s timeless and fresh all at once. It’s also the perfect setting for me to work. This is where I officially launched myself as a painter. I’d been drawing, print-making, and painting for years, in and out of accredited fine art establishments in Canada and Europe, It was here on Saturna, though, when I first realized it was time to come out and show my work. It’s the showing that now completes the creative process for me: generating the idea, giving myself over to it, doing it with all the concentrated internal-external communications of that “making” process , then letting it go out into the world to complete itself in the viewer’s involved reaction.

Though I have just this fall opened a studio/gallery in Vancouver, it is here in Saturna that I find the solace, inspiration, and clarity of vision to do what I do. I love it here. It’s that simple.

Being part of the Saturna artists’ show this Thanksgiving is a welcome example of the creative energy that abounds in this small and wondrous place. It will be a pleasure to have you come see and be part of it.

Here is one of the paintings that I'll have on display at the Art Saturna show. Entitled Fox & Foxy, it is part of my Animal Lovers series. You can see more on my website (click here). This collection of works blends a fascination with the human-animal form in all its varieties and moods with my longstanding interest in fable and in the inner-outer worlds we humans inhabit. I hope it tickles your fancy (or whatever else may need tickling). And I hope to see you at the show.

 www.janetstrayerart.com

My blog on creative living (art, travels, photos, tips): www.janetstrayer.blogspot.ca

New Vancouver Studio:    

1000 Parker Street, Studio #202 (near Venables and Clark Drive)

St. Christopher's Church

St. Christopher's Anglican Church

by Denise Deanovic

St. Christopher's Church is one of Saturna Island's iconic landmarks.  In my family it has been the scene of worship, ceremonies, special family events and volunteerism.  No one can miss seeing the church if you come via the normal route from the ferry landing. 

The reference photo for this mixed media painting was taken one day when the fall leaves and sunlight gave a special embrace to the "ship's hull" shape of the church.

I am planning to have medium and small sized prints of this painting at the 2012 Thanksgiving  ArtSaturna show.  I look forward to being at the Community Hall to visit with visitors and residents while we display our work.

Unfurling Rose

Painting the sandstone led me to love the sinuous flowing lines in the stones. After several years and many paintings, I yearned  to move away from my earthy palette and use more color in my work.
One day as I worked in my garden, I realized I could combine the flowing lines of the stones with the beautiful colors of the flowers I was growing.
Unfurling Rose is a giclée print from my series of watercolor flowers that I will be exhibiting in the Thanksgiving show.

Anne Popperwell

Spanish Arabesque

"Arabesque"  

This year I've been doing some abstract acrylics on the theme of an arabesque, defined as "a kind of negation of closed geometric forms". The two-foot square piece shown here, called Spanish Arabesque, was inspired by decorations inside San Xavier del Bac outside Tucson, Arizona which I visited in March.  Spanish artists from Mexico City came up the Anza Trail in the 17th century and frescoed the chapel in a lively baroque style with figures, faux-stonework and other embellishments...including arabesques.  I'll have one or two of these canvases in the Thanksgiving ArtSaturna show at the Community Hall.  Karen Muntean 

Stone Bird

I moved to Saturna Island many years ago to paint the eroded sandstone formations at East Point. I was, and still am, enchanted by the sense of flowing stone and it's resemblance to the human body. As the stone is worn by the sea, I chose to use watercolour as my medium for this series and experimented until I found a paper with a texture that recalled the fine grained sandstone. 
Recently I've published a giclée print of this painting, "Stone Bird" which I will be exhibiting at our Thanksgiving show.

Anne Popperwell

Thanksgiving Weekend Art Show on Saturna

Thanksgiving Weekend Art Show

Sunday and Monday, October 7 and 8, Noon - 4 pm

On Thanksgiving weekend, a dozen of artists from Saturna Island invite you to come and enjoy their colourful work at the Saturna Community Hall, near the ferry. Diverse styles and media will be on display, artists present. Everyone welcome!

Participating artists:

Nancy Angermeyer  
Jack Campbell
Denise Deanovic
Donna-Fay Digance
Andrée Fredette
Teresa Higgins
Elizabeth McColl
Karen Muntean
Gaye Oreskovic
Sam Peramaki
Anne Popperwell
Janet Strayer


Need additional information? Email artsaturna_at_gmail_dot_com