The 16th annual Pender Harbour Jazz Festival unfolds this weekend with a host of free concerts at different locations: John Henry's Marina and the Sunshine Coast Resort, plus no cover charge at some local restaurants, the Garden Bay Pub and the Grasshopper. The Laila Biali Trio concert at the School of Music is sold out.
See: www.phjazz.ca for ticket availability for the Jazzapaloozas, three musical acts each afternoon for $20 at Millennium Park.
Big Love
Join Laurie Verchomin for an intimate reading from her book, The Big Love: Life and Death with Bill Evans, with music by Bill Evans at Bluewaters Books in Madeira Park on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. It's the perfect event to accompany the Pender Harbour Jazz Festival.
Swish writers
Brindle & Glass publishers invite you to a reading of In the Flesh: Twenty Writers Explore the Body, edited by Kathy Page and Lynne Van Luven on Saturday at 7 p.m. at SWISH, a new store at #309 - 287 Gower Point Road (across from Leo's Tapas & Grill) in Gibsons. The reading includes contributors Candace Fertile, Julian Gunn and Lynne Van Luven. Music is by Alicia Miller.
Autumn Skye
Popular Powell River artist Autumn Skye Morrison will be painting live at Woods Showcase in Sunnycrest Mall, Gibsons, on Saturday in the afternoon. All are invited to sit for a little or a long while and watch this amazing artist create.
Plein Air painting
Plein Air painters are invited to enjoy the colourful working wharf and vintage location of Gibsons Landing on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sketch or paint for beginners to advanced. No instruction, just a chance to hang out together. Pick up an information sheet at the Visitors Information Centre (VIC) across from Molly's Reach and join other artists to enjoy this great location. Meet at the VIC square, below the George Gibson statue. Mornings: meet between 10 and 10:30 a.m. and afternoons meet between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Call Jan Poynter on her cell phone (VIC info sheet) to find where artists are working.
Celso on Sunday
Come for the sweet Brazilian sounds of the internationally acclaimed musical gem of the Sunshine Coast, Celso Machado, up close and personal Sunday at 2 p.m. at Strait Sound, Roberts Creek. Admission: $20. Call 604-808-5143 for reservations and directions.
Green films
Once again the Green films series (Gibsons Green Team and Sustainable Coast magazine) will present a special series of environmental films, at the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse. They kick off the green film series on Monday, Sept. 17 with Chasing Ice.
In 2006, National Geo-graphic photographer James Balog started deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras to record the world's changing glaciers. He took spectacular footage of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the documentation of how global warming is significantly affecting this landscape.
Putting his career and well-being at risk, Balog brings us a visually stunning film with a courageously hopeful message. Tickets are $7 for Sunshine Coast Film Society members, $10 single-event. Show starts at 7:30, doors open at 7 p.m. More info at greenfilms.ca.
Surreal Edge
The Sunshine Coast Arts Council invites you to see Gibsons resident Marilyn Marshall's recent paintings on canvas and paper in a show called Joie de Vivre: The Surreal Edge, from Sept. 19 to Oct. 7, with an opening reception from 7 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 19 at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt.
Joie de Vivre is a show about organic nature at its liveliest. The paintings on canvas are of budding and burgeoning plants, ageing trees, languishing vegetables, people dancing, embracing, giving birth.
Call 604-885-5412 or see www.scartscouncil.com for more.
Film at Ruby Lake
Award winning Coast filmmaker Dianne Whelan's documentary, 40 Days at Base Camp, will be screening at Ruby Lake on Friday, Sept. 21. Dinner and film is $40, or buy a ticket to the film only for $20. The film will begin at 8:30 p.m., and will screen outside, so bring a blanket and lawn chair. Whelan will be on hand for an introduction.
The film has just completed a cross-Canada tour, screening in over 40 independent theatres while travelling from Vancouver to Newfoundland. It has also been honoured with the Leo Award for best cinematography and sound editing in the documentary category. At 5,500 metres above sea level and over the course of 40 days, the filmmaker immersed herself in the challenging and captivating world of base camp at Mount Everest. For tickets, phone Ruby Lake at 604-883-2269.
Amazon project
Diego Samper has embarked on a new venture with Jamie Griffiths, his art partner in the Panopticon project, a film about prison art that screened in Sechelt in the summer. The new work is a collective Canadian/British show opening in London, Sept. 19, and coming to Vancouver in January. It combines an interactive audiovisual sculpture that brings the Amazon sound and visual experience to the north.
Tuesday deadline
Send notice of your arts events to [email protected] or phone 604-886-4692 by Tuesday at 5 p.m. for Friday's newspaper. Let me know who, what, where, when, why and ticket info briefly. Because of the volume of submissions, Art Beat covers events one day to one week ahead only.
