When artist Bradley Hunt lived in Gibsons, visitors could find him in his home studio working on commissions, carving totems and creating artwork of all kinds.
In latter years he has taken a lesser profile, choosing to impart much of his own education (a double art major from University of British Columbia) to his two sons, Shawn and Dean, who have both gone on to work in their own mediums.
"We wanted to remind people that we're still here," Bradley told Coast Reporter recently.
He and his son Dean opened their studio, now on Hupit in the Mission Point area of Sechelt, to the public on the first Saturday in July. They plan to open again this Saturday, Aug. 3.
It's a chance to drift among the sawdust and talk to two engaging artists who are now incorporating a contemporary element into their traditional pieces. The Hunts come from the Heiltsuk First Nations in B.C.'s Bella Bella, an area known for its traditional carving.
"Originally our people were influenced by what they saw around them in nature, but now we're influenced by so many things that we see through the media," Bradley said.
After a visit to Italy with its renaissance and contemporary art, he realized that he had incorporated that influence into his work as well.
Bradley displayed a bent box, a traditional container made by bending the wood and decorating it with the image of a raven - its beak at the front, a wing on either side and a tail at the back panel. Raven, the crest figure on his grandfather's side of the family, is his inspiration and is most prominent in his work. The start of a commissioned piece, a three-metre totem that will incorporate an eagle and a bear, sits waiting to be worked on.
Recently Bradley has returned to painting and is excited about this new way of bringing the stories and characters to life in a different medium. Some are painted in traditional colours, red and black, but he usually adds some of the hue that is known as Bella Bella blue.
But the true highlights of the Hunt family studio are their larger than life masks. Bradley demonstrated his wild woman of the woods mask in red cedar and showed how the handholds allow the wearer to use the oversized mask at gatherings. The wooden lady has sensuous lips and prominent cheekbones. She's only slightly smaller than Dean's magnificent Sasquatch mask. This mighty face also has great lips, a hooked nose and straggling hair that drapes over natural wood grain wrinkles. Though Dean tried painting the mask, he discovered that it looked better in the natural wood - and more frightening. The artist is serious that the creature exists in nature and it would look something like his image.
Bradley is proud of his two sons. Shawn is now away in Vancouver and painting big canvases.
"I taught Shawn how to do the art, but he takes it beyond," Bradley said.
Dean has also gone beyond his father, in studying his music and taking on the art of the silversmith, designing bracelets and earrings that tell traditional stories.
The studio is at 4519 Hupit, off Mission Road, and will be open this Saturday, Aug. 3, from 1 to 4 p.m. Phone 604-865-0313 for directions.
