Cariboo artist Iris Mes-Low is comparable to a Phoenix rising from the ashes.
Almost two years after she and her family lost their home and business in Likely to an electrical fire, she has an exhibit of new works at the Station House Gallery in Williams Lake that is a feast to the eyes.
Titled Out of My Mind, the show features unique and abstract viewpoints of the Cariboo landscapes.
“They are based on my remembrances and then I paint what I have in my head,” she told the people gathered at the exhibit’s opening Thursday, Feb. 8. “I like to explore colour, shape and form. The feel of the landscape is what I try to communicate. The Cariboo is such beautiful country.”
Her show takes up the upper floor gallery at the Station House.
The paintings explore the Cariboo in many seasons and moods.
“This is a little tiny river near Likely that I based this one on,” she said pointing to one of her pieces. “The light, the sunshine and how it reflects on the landscape.”
There are three paintings along the south wall with gorgeous bright-coloured flowers, mountains, trees and sky.
Mes-Low said they are not connected with each other as a series, however, there is a common theme of the constant changing aspect of the Cariboo, compared to the Coast.
“You have rolling hills, you have mountains, you have hillsides with meadows, and forests.”
Another painting, titled Small Town on a Lake, could be described as Tuscany meets Williams Lake.
With hues that one would expect to see in the Italian countryside, Mes-Low has recreated the landscape around Signal Point in Williams Lake.
When asked if anything has changed in her art since moving to Likely, Mes-Low said she has started painting flowers.
“I have PTSD from a childhood thing,” she said. “I read this book about an Indigenous person who had PTSD and moving up north really calmed him down. I found that too.”
Living in Likely has made her less anxious and she has explored more flowers and “things like that,” she added.
“It is very healing to live here,” she said.
Heading West is another piece in the show that depicts the view from East Vancouver looking toward the business section of Vancouver.
“I feel it’s interesting to look toward the financial district from East Vancouver - it’s just an interesting contrast.”
When creating works she keeps some photo references for her paintings, whether they be of buildings, colour, sun or sky.
“I just cobble it all together in my brain and then I just go nuts with it.”
Normally she paints five canvases at a time, leaving time for each to dry as she moves to another one.
“I paint full time now,” she added.
Originally from the Netherlands, Low moved to Likely with her family.
They purchased the Pyna-tee-ah Lodge less than a year before it was destroyed by the fire.
She and her daughter had been transforming it into the Messy Owl Inn, a café and bread and breakfast.
In the fire she lost some of her own paintings as well as a painting of her father’s, who was also an artist.
All of the paintings in the new exhibit at the Station House were created after the fire.
The show runs until Saturday, March 23.
