A handful of Vancouver artists

I wanted to highlight a few more artists who caught my eye as I skimmed through the Mergatroid Building and 1000 Parker on the weekend.

Shari Pratt‘s posters showing this painting led me to her studio. I was drawn in by the almost haunting, old-photograph portrait style of her paintings. When I found the studio, I enjoyed trying to figure out her technique, which appeared to be scratching forms into paint or gesso, then adding colour and interest with mixed media painting. She also does portrait commissions.

This painting by Barbara Parkin caught my eye because of its bright colours and composition. I even was tempted a few weeks ago to paint some flowers (poppies) but have yet to try doing more realistic paintings.

Since I switched to mixed media, I’ve been stuck in abstract mode. Seeing how cheerful Barbara and others paintings are has inspired me (till I remember I can’t draw very well).

Cheryl Fortier did an excellent job portraying movement and circles on water.

Another studio I always look forward to is that of Robin Ripley, who for a few years had a series called threnody on display, where she had mended frail fall leaves.

This year, we enjoyed some of her newer works, as she described it, “CRAWL 2011 Book Bytes series and Read Me installation created with old books, in which visitors can participate by selecting a page to take home.” She had quite an extensive series of altered book pages on display.

A couple other artists I enjoyed in the same studio space as Shari Pratt were Nathalie Denise, who’s simple sketch-based paintings have a fresh design to them, and Karen Bagayawa whose mixed media paintings are all about texture and colour.

I wanted to mention Eve Leader, because she has such a distinctive style, always painting figures in muted tones:

Camille Sleeman‘s paintings have the same energy for me as Canadian painter Gordon Smith, and are so beautiful:

And last but not least, I enjoyed the beautiful oil painting landscapes of Kerensa Haynes and the scratchy mixed media paintings of Sonya Iwasiuk. Thanks to all the artists who opened up your studios to masses of people! Thanks for the inspiration.