The Westwind Gallery in Gibsons should be exploding with colour very soon when artist Elizabeth Evans holds her show of new acrylics, opening May 14, called Colour and Motion.
Evans loves colour, reds and oranges primarily.
"A warm palette makes me feel warm," she said.
No blacks, no browns. Her style is unique. Each brush stroke is a coloured brick, painstakingly applied, that visually blends in a colourful path. For the viewer, this brick path through her work often gives the appearance of motion.
She is a landscape painter, although her work might also be called tree-scapes. Trees have been a signature image, mostly West Coast trees: twisted arbutus or skinny, straight aspens.
"When light hits the trees in a certain way, I see colours that illuminate the edges," she said.
The overall effect is one of energy.
Evans acknowledges that her career has been charmed by wonderful teachers. When she went to art college in Montreal many years ago, she knew nothing of art history. Art wasn't even taught in her high school. Arthur Lismer, one of Canada's famous Group of Seven, taught a class in illustration, and later in the third year, a painting class. Evans developed a special rapport with the elderly, distinguished artist, and they would often walk home by the same route. She learned much from his practical teaching style, and he encouraged her.
"They don't teach like that any more," Evans said, sadly.
Lismer died two years later, but by then Evans had gone to study at teachers' college. Later in her career, she studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts where impressionism was in vogue. She had renowned artist Gordon Smith as a teacher for the first year and Gordon Adaskin in her second year. (Coincidentally, the accomplished artist Adaskin also lived in Gibsons in his retirement, long before Evans moved to the Coast.)
While teaching school in Ottawa and North Vancouver, Evans continued to paint and offered summer art classes for kids, a project she thoroughly enjoyed.
Evans is a relative newcomer to the Coast who is grateful for the welcome she has received from the arts community. When she arrived, she became involved with the town's banner project where she met artist Greta Guzek and gallery owner Morley Baker. Though she has other interests - gardening, playing piano and being a homebody - it wasn't long before she was working consistently on new paintings, some of which were inspired by the panoramic view from her home and studio.
"I'd go to bed painting in my head, and get going on it the next morning. It's like a disease," she laughs, "certainly not curable."
Evans is not pretentious about her art at all. She's as happy to paint surfboards as she once did for surfers on Vancouver Island, or to work on another of her hobbies, designing and building a miniature version of Gibsons as the display table for a model train set.
Visitors to the two-week Westwind show will recognize Roberts Creek beach among the paintings, but may not be as familiar with the scene in Sweet Surrender, a depiction of maple sugaring in Quebec. Among Evans' own favourites are two paintings that include ghostly images of a bear and an eagle in their skies, The Shadow of the Bear and Over Land and Water.
The show runs until May 28 with an opening reception this Saturday, May 14 from 4 to 7 p.m. The gallery is upstairs at 292 Gower Point Rd., Gibsons.
