Two Horizons

Two Horizons
Susan Benson & April Mackey
June 13 - July 2
Opening Reception: Friday June 13, 5 - 7pm

“TWO HORIZONS is a tribute to the journeys and life experiences of two individuals from vastly different backgrounds, and fifty years apart yet still deeply connected. Their shared fascination with landscapes stems from their artistic backgrounds, often influenced by similar artists. However, their individual histories diverge, leading to different forms of artistic expressions.

In the 1960s, Susan Benson arrived in Canada, where she found striking similarities between the scenery on the west coast of Canada and the Pembrokeshire coast, which was the inspiration for the work of the English painter Graham Sutherland whose landscapes have had

a strong influence on her early paintings. The intricate interplay of textures and shapes of the Canadian landscape has found its way into her recent work. Susan’s background in theatre is shown in a small series of figurative landscapes based on Shakespeare’s plays.

April Mackey’s contribution follows the painted trails from the lush shoreline of the Canadian West Coast to the dramatically beautiful, weather-worn terrain of Ireland. Through a collection of evocative landscape paintings, her work invites viewers to explore the dramatic land and light across these geographically distinct yet emotionally resonant places. Each image presents a personalized perspective of childhood hideouts and homes away from home, encouraging viewers to perceive familiar places with fresh eyes and distant ones with a sense of belonging.”

Of Wild Gods and Forest Lovers

Matthew Hildebrandt

These are paintings about life. About the spirit and sacredness of all things. These are paintings about us. About our connection to these beautiful wild places and the beautiful wild places inside us. These are paintings about the wilderness within. About love. And letting go.

Of Wild Gods and Forest Lovers is a collection of new artworks exploring the ideas of human connection. Our connection to each other, to nature, and to ourselves. They are a reforestation. A resurrection. A return to some vast and bewildering space inside of ourselves.

All of the paintings in this series were dreamed before painting them. Some I have been dreaming of for years. Others I have dreamed for the first time right before composing them. This process of pre-dreaming my paintings began many years ago. It was the key reason behind my departure from realism and working with models to paint in a stylized, freer, less inhibited fashion. This is how I dreamt it.

I have been a lover of art all my life and have fallen in love with the work of a wide variety of artists. I do not doubt that those moments of infatuation have influenced my work. But in truth, I have never really felt like I had much choice in what I painted. My process as an artist has been a continual letting go into something that I cannot name.  Some unwieldy joy. As though my art (and my joy) is its own beast, with its own breath and being. A wild god that I am simply bearing witness to.

I Do Not Want Your Paintings Just Because You're Dead

I Don’t Want Your Paintings Just Because You’re Dead
William Kozar
May 23 - June 11
Opening Reception: Friday May 23, 5 - 7pm

William Kozar:

I am making a return to the Maverick period in the 20th century when artists, especially in New York, were making art out of any medium they could find: house paint, cardboard, pencil etc. In part it is a reaction to the high cost of art production in our time.

I search for humble materials and prepare paintings from “scratch”. I find cast off canvas and paper and patch it together in order to create my paint surface. I recycle old alkyd, shellac and concrete.The work is abstract but I reference the old masters. I use these narratives to inform the recent paintings. Currently I am painting the Arch Angels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.

Small Works

Small Works
By the Members of Salt Spring Gallery
Nov 29 - Dec 21, 2024
Opening Reception Friday Dec 6, 5- 8pm

Throughout each year, the members of Salt Spring Gallery co-create and maintain a vibrant environment where new works are regularly featured by members and guest artists. The gallery is a valued gathering place where the local community and island visitors can always look forward to finding inspiration and meaningful artwork that enhances the quality of life.

In the spirit of the season upon us, and with holidays around the corner, the gallery will host a collection of small works by the members. This will be the final show before the gallery’s annual winter hibernation. 

Small works often invite the viewer to draw nearer, making this exhibit a perfect way to step into an intimate and reflective time of year in the Northwest.

A special reception will be held in participation with the downtown Ganges Winter Wander.

Diana Dean, Then and Now

Diana Dean, Then and Now
Diana Dean
Sept 6 - Sept 25
Opening Reception: Friday Sept 6, 5-7pm

We are excited to present a show of Diana Dean’s artwork at our gallery for the second year in a row.  What an honour!

Diana Dean, RCA, has been exhibiting in Canada since 1976 in both public and commercial galleries.  Her work is held in private and corporate collections across North America and the U.K..

“Diana Dean, Then and Now” showcases a lineage of Dean’s paintings from earlier works to the many she has created in 2024.  We bear witness to the breathtaking thematic and stylistic development of the artist’s vision and craft, with each stage resonating as deeply today as it did in yesteryear.  There is a sense of the eternal, where landscape, portraiture, and allegory are intertwined in a rainbow of love and reverence.  

“We are part of the landscape,” Dean recently said.  “After 50 years of work, I see that painting is becoming an expression of love.  In my painting, I am interested in connection between geometry in nature, in physics and light and the wish to project with paint, the human quality that is present in all of us.”