An exhibit at Williams Lake’s Station House Gallery featuring art owned by gallery directors and members is helping connect the community during COVID-19.
“People not only like to see varied art but human curiosity makes other people wonder what people have in their homes,” said executive director and gallery manager Diane Toop. “And, people who purchase art like to show it.”
On Our Walls, which opened Feb. 12, includes artwork from the homes of Buff and Paul Carnes, Sheila and Charlie Wyse, Lynn Capling, Linda and Phil Bachman, Don Gesinger and Cathy Alexander, Pat Teti, Greg and Anne Brown, Doug and Marie Mervyn, Lynn and Kathy Bonner, Ed and Joan Oliver, Mary Ellison, Brandy and Darren Stecyk, Gladys Wheatley, Brian and Lynda Sawyer, Stephen and Anne Oliver and Kathryn Steen.
Read more: Our Hometown: Curating a life
Ellison, a retired teacher, said the painting by Jack L. McLean she loaned for the show was a wedding gift from her husband, who was working at a local ranch when they met.
“I was intrigued it was done with a palette knife,” Ellison said, adding McLean must have known ranching by the way he painted. The painting normally hangs over the fire place in her home.
Wyse loaned a natural fibre wall hanging by Inuit artist Anana Agnes Nulluq Iqquqaqtuq that her late son, Charles, gave her as a gift when he was working as a nurse in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut in the early 1990s.
In October 2020 one evening she posted a picture of the hanging on a Facebook site — Inuit Art Enthusiasts.
“I explained that my son was deceased and I had no way to find out any more about the artist,” Wyse said.
Within an hour of making the post, several people responded, including the artist’s daughter who shared a photograph of her mom working another piece.
Wyse included Iqquqaqtuq’s photograph beside the wall hanging and said she is pleased to have it with the art which she treasures so much.
Normally the piece hangs in their den, she added.
Wyse said she thought Toop’s idea for the art show was great because of the glimpse it gives into other people’s homes.
Capling loaned three colourful paintings of old churches in rural settings that were created by Rose Depal.
Toop said the gallery had a show featuring Depal’s works about a decade ago.
Toop has a few options for the next exhibit and may feature two Vancouver artists whose works were originally scheduled to be shown last year.
She said the gallery continues to be busy with lots of support from the community.
People enjoy coming in to visit, sitting in a chair that is physically-distanced on the other side of a glass divider at the front counter, Toop added.
The show closes on Saturday, March 20. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Read more: Found poems: Station House Gallery October exhibit shines
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