A new exhibit at the Station House Gallery features work by Williams Lake area artist Catherine Roland.
New Horizons explores how Roland is inspired by her natural surroundings, offering the viewer a heartwarming reprieve from the present cold snap.
Pointing to one of her paintings of mountains in the Tatlayoko Valley during the opening of the show Thursday, Feb. 6, Roland described her interpretation of landscapes as not typical.
The painting depicts the feeling she had after hiking up into the area, she explained.
“You can see the mountains and all the lines, but the choice of colour is more about a feeling. That’s why I don’t classify myself - it’s not abstract and it’s not realism either."
She has included several paintings done on pieces of juniper and driftwood in the show. Animals are featured in most of them and in her artist statement she notes she loves “the company of animals during the creative process, bringing new connections within myself. Through my eyes, the small paintings remain an abstract process.”
Highlighting the fact she has sewn beads or feathers into some of her pieces, she explained she was inspired by the art and culture of First Nations people in the region to add those elements to her paintings.
"Some of it came to me in dreams," she said.
The exhibit is a tribute to the spirit of nature in the Chilcotin, she added.
Originally from Belgium, Roland spent 10 years in Quebec before moving to the Williams Lake area in 2010.
“Before that I travelled for five years in Asia and before that I was studying Western medicine," Roland told the Tribune.
Coming from Europe, she said she immediately liked the big open landscapes in Canada and began painting.
“I spend lots of time outside and when I was in Asia I was doing lots of meditation and working with energy which I try to bring into my work.”
Roland has shown her work in Belgium, Vancouver and previously at the Station House in 2011.
She and her partner Cameron Self live in Springhouse where they have some animals.
When she isn’t creating art work she is homeschooling their son, Paolo, who was at the opening of the show taking photographs.
Her art changed after her son was born, she added.
“My life as a mother brought me more colour and it was different.”
New Horizon will be featured in the gallery until Saturday, March 22.
Executive director Davona Stafford thanked Roland for wanting to have her art exhibit at the gallery and said she did a fabulous job putting the show together.
The show is sponsored by the late Bev and Rick Pemberton who were involved with the gallery for many years.
