Sechelt artist Shannon Hergott has opened her very first show at the La Cabana Gallery on Cowrie Street - a series of pen and ink drawings. It's not such an unusual place for a novice in the art world, since La Cabana is also new, open last November, under the direction of Raymond Middlemiss, a poet, not a painter. New or not, Middlemiss and staff Terri Bosner and Rita Petrescu have managed to elicit some of the best examples of art from a few of the Coast's heavy hitters.
The gallery shows the work of Britton Francis, a renowned painter and signature member of the Federation of Canadian Artists. Currently on La Cabana's walls are works by professional artists Donna Balma, Lez Niepo and Ursula Fritsch. Sechelt's Gerhilde Stulken shows her best landscapes, while Pender Harbour's Wendy Simmonds captures water scenery. The gallery also encourages some rising stars: Francine Desjardins, who has recently moved to a more abstract style, has two fascinating pieces on display. Noel Silver's dramatic Buddha portraits grab attention and, at a recent evening event, art enthusiasts admired a river scene by Eileen Berczik.
At the back of the spacious gallery is a cozy section by the fireplace that Middlemiss nicknames Poet's Corner. The owner hopes that other scribes, musicians and artists will relax together in that quiet space.
"There's no pressure in my gallery," he says. Anyone is welcome to enter and sit for a while. It is this interest in a collaboration of mediums that got him started in galleries; he challenged a few local artists to paint an original work based on each of his poems. He was so excited by what he saw that he commissioned more work, then framed the poems and pictures together for display on the walls. His second book of poems, now in the works, entitled Symbols of Silence, marries poetry to artwork.
Exhibiting artist Hergott was born and lives in Sechelt; she studied art at Chatelech Secondary School. A poet herself, she came across Middlemiss's website (www.walkingpoet.com) and was intrigued. She approached him. He liked her designs and featured them on greeting cards, then encouraged her to do a show, the first special exhibit for the gallery.
Hergott's pen and ink drawings take up the large centre space until Feb. 17. They depict women - of all centuries and costumes, sometimes sensuous, often stylized, after the fashion of Aubrey Beardsley. The characters spring from Hergott's pen, all from her imagination, except for one grown up portrait based on her daughter Kirsten, now 10.
"They just fall out of my fingers," she says. Each character has a story to tell.
"I love these characters. I stick up the pictures all over the house just to look at them," she added. Each figure comes with a symbol - Hergott is not sure who she is channelling in her inspiration for the symbols but she is often surprised by what will appear. The women wear stars and spirals, swirls or a compass rose. In one drawing, she depicted a young woman in what appears to be an Egyptian headdress, then drew a zigzag symbol on her forehead. She later learned that it is also the symbol for reiki. This young artist is still realizing her potential; the sky's the limit, she says. The La Cabana Gallery will also be the location for the Team Torso display in early March - a preview show of work by 12 women artists who have painted cement sculptures in support of the Sunshine Dragons Abreast paddling team and breast cancer fundraising.
