CULTURE & COCKTAILS
MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2020 | $50 includes tax and gratuity
An intimate evening with some of the Okanagan’s best artists, featuring live art demonstrations throughout the evening, local exhibitions, silent auctions, custom cocktails, canapés, and more!
There will be a dozen artists and artisans who will be in attendance and have works on display throughout the night. Meet the artists and hear more about their favourite pieces and materials they work with. The night will also feature live music from Lance Carr on Spanish guitar.
Tickets include two feature cocktails and canapes throughout the evening, plus a portion of all ticket sales will be donated to help support the Arts Council of the North Okanagan.
Artist bios below.
ARTIST BIOS
ARTIST BIOS
SHEILA TANSEY
Sheila grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan and from an early age always had crayons or pencils in her hands. She was lucky enough to have an artistic mother who introduced her to oil paints when she was ten. Surrounded by original art, she was inspired to create! Later, she went on to study computer science and geography, and she continued to draw and paint while she worked in the computer graphics field. During this time, Sheila took a year sabbatical and bicycled Canada, Southern Africa, and parts of Britain and Europe. Her love for travel, culture, and nature has been a tremendous influence on her artwork.
While primarily a self-taught artist, Sheila studied one year of art and design at Kwantlen University College, in Surrey, BC. Since moving to the Okanagan, she has had the opportunity to take many workshops from professional artists. Sheila currently works in acrylics and oils and she teaches painting and drawing to new and experienced artists of all ages.
Sheila's studio is located at the artHouse in Lake Country, BC.
ANN WILLSIE
Ann has spent most of her life painting in oils, both in studio and in the outdoors, en plein air. She has participated in and helped organize many plein air events throughout Canada during her career. Being primarily a landscape painter, Ann's style of painting is very loose and impressionistic, characterized by thick oil paint, harmonious colour and visible brushstrokes. Most of her paintings depict the splendour of the natural landscape around us, both large-scale panoramic vistas as well as close-up trees, grasses and flowers. Her passion, however, is florals, larger than life.
Her work is shown in galleries in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. and held in collections around the world. She is an Associate Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, and has won numerous awards in various FCA shows and Plein Air Festivals. Ann spends most of her time working and teaching at her studio in Lake Country, B.C.
WENDY HART PENNER
Canadian artist Wendy Hart Penner was born and raised in northern Ontario and graduated in 1975 from the Sheridan College of Applied Arts and Technology with a specialty in illustration. The essential foundations in drawing, anatomy, colour, and design afforded her both a successful and enjoyable career. In 1994, after having worked as a technical illustrator for Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd. in Toronto, Ontario and then as a commercial artist for Pacific Press in Vancouver, British Columbia where she was also a freelance artist, Wendy moved with her family to the Okanagan Valley in southern B.C., where she currently makes her home. Here she ran her own illustration and design business for ten years before choosing to fulfill a life-long desire to paint.
Wendy's favourite forms of inspiration are life drawings, still life, and painting en plein air. "I love to draw anything live and hope to bring strokes of life and depict it in an impressionistic way. I enjoy an alla prima approach when oil painting and charcoal or graphite when drawing."
For Wendy, painting is an important, natural expression, must as laughing is - both of which she appreciates daily.
GABRIELLE STRONG
A graduate of Emily Carr University, Gabrielle's practice is split between painting, ceramics, and more recently public art. Following graduation, she dove into a six-month Artist Residency at the Vernon Community Arts Centre through the Caetani Cultural Centre's CeramAiR Program, which ultimately led her to make the Okanagan her home permanently. In 2017, she was awarded a major public art commission by the City of Vernon and the Downtown Vernon Association to create a participatory public work of art commemorating Canada's 150th birthday. At over 150 feet long, Mosaic River was successfully installed in Cenotaph Park in downtown Vernon in summer 2018. Next up - Gabrielle will be showcasing a new series of seascapes, Down Came the Rain, in her upcoming solo exhibition in April at Gallery Vertigo in Vernon.
JEANNE BYRON
Jeanne Byron is a Canadian artist, currently living in the Okanagan Valley. As a young girl, she was fascinated by 'making pictures.' She would sit with her father and instruct him: "Draw this Daddy" and he dutifully did so. Later, she learned to make her own, sometimes to mother's dismay, on living room walls! Throughout her professional career as a corporate mediator, she continued to explore art: painting, drawing, pottery, photography and textiles.
Painting forces Jeanne to put aside her fears and paint, make marks, and make mistakes. She strives to work from her heart, focusing on the process of creating. She loves playing with different mediums and seeing what evolves. The challenge of painting abstract demands that she let go of trying to replicate the outer world and connect with her "self", her inner world. She also loves the idea of her art connecting with others, tickling their curiosity, sparking their imagination, and encouraging them to listen to their own creative spirit. www.jeannebyron.weebly.com
PATRICIA DOYLE
Patricia Doyle is a visual artist residing on the Bella Vista Hillside in Vernon, BC. While her primary medium is glass she also works in metal, acrylics, mixed media, felt, clay, videography and photography.
Doyle's works are usually centered on both her love and awe of nature and her quirky sense of humour. She uses art to convey her vision of the world being a more harmonious and beautiful place.
Doyle teaches fused glass and glass bead-making classes at the Vernon Community Art Centre. She also teaches one week intensive glass bead making courses at Red Deer College's Summer Series in Alberta every few years. She also hosts and produces a cable TV show with Shaw called Artisan's Alley that showcases notable artists and artisans from the North Okanagan.
While she does a limited number of shows and sales throughout the year, her work is available for purchase in a number of stores and gallery shops in Western Canada.
PETER BITTROFF
Peter Bittroff is a retired millwright welder that lives in Coldstream, BC. Using his knowledge of metals and collecting a variety of recycled material, he started his metal artist hobby in October 2017. Using his imagination, he has created his own style of art, as each piece is original, not to be duplicated. His creativity is endless from the way he creates flowers to hummingbirds to dragons to abstract along with yard and garden pieces. He also likes to work with old wood with metal for a variety of wall hangings to furniture pieces.
250.549.0754
RAFFAELLA VAZ
Originally from the Dolomite Mountains of Northern Italy, Raffaella Vaz has snowboarded her way around the world finally arriving in the stunning B.C. mountains and calls the Okanagan Valley home. Inspired by nature and formally trained in fine arts, Raffaella uses her Bachelor Degree in animation to beautifully characterize the essence of this region in her art. Specializing in illustration, concept art and custom projects, Raffaella is an award-winning ski and snowboard artist and is resident top sheet artist at Donek Snowboards in Colorado. Raffaella, prior to illness was an accomplished Snowboard Coach, working for the Silver Star Freestyle Club and delivered "Youth in Sports" programs in the Okanagan area. Diagnosed in 2019 with life-threatening lung and heart disease, Raffaella now works solely on custom art commissions. Mother to three year old daughter Billie, Raffaella balances her art workload and commitments to family, thanks to her supportive and adoring husband Olympian snowboarder Crispin Lipscomb. They work together as a team at Vaz Art, creating wood, canvas and natural art pieces, travelling to art shows around B.C.
RENE BEERTHUIZEN
Rene was born in Holland, immigrated to Canada at the age of 5 and lived his earliest years in Kakabeka Falls in Northern Ontario. Rene now resides in Vernon, BC. Working mostly in graphite, he taught himself from art magazines and books. He worked in this medium and made a transition to water colours, oils, and then pastel, which he presently paints with today.
Rene's present works are focused towards the conservation's of wildlife. His paintings reside in private and corporate collections in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Rene has been in numerous regional and national exhibitions, with his most recent award being a gold medal.
Rene has also contributed back to the art community by providing beginner to advanced classes in Ontario and British Columbia. Changing times have great influence over his present work and he hopes that others are able to reflect on their past and consider their future through his paintings. "Painting is an impressionist style while I leave absolute realism to the camera."
BARRY RAFUSE
Barry enjoys the challenge of working with the unknown and capitalizing on "happy accidents" when the paint and textures interact. This exploration time takes hours, days, or even weeks. He strives to keep the painting loose and bold, and the images dramatic and mysterious. Barry is a senior member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, teaches mixed media courses, juries' shows, and continues to exhibit work in galleries and juried exhibitions. Painting has become part of his life and keeps him grounded.
JAMES POSTILL
James Postill earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1993. His work can be found in collection around the world. He has produced a number of murals and painted sculptures throughout the interior of British Columbia and Alberta. These can be found in Vernon, Salmon Arm, Lumby, Sicamous, and Calgary. He works primarily in oils, and sometimes fresco painting, which is an ancient art form not commonly seen in Canada. In 2012, Postill learned this medium under the tutelage of 94 year old Father Dunstan Massey, a Benedictine monk from Mission's Westminister Abbey. Shortly after his teaching, Postill was commissioned to paint a 55-square foot fresco on the outside atrium of the Vernon Arts Center building in 2013.
Presently, Postill has returned to oil painting and he lives and practices art in Vernon, BC.
DESTANNE NORRIS
Primarily a landscape-based oil painter, Destanne's professional art career was established while she lived and painted in the Rocky Mountains in Jasper, Alberta. Currently she lives on SilverStar Mountain and paints in her studio in Vernon. Landscape and place, metaphor and symbol, embodiment and romanticism are her research interests. An overarching theme in her landscape painting is the mirroring of "inscape and landscape"