An Exhibition of Colour and Light

OPA Sushi & RiverWalker Arts - Presents :
An exhibition of Colour and Light.
Opening reception on Sunday May 29th 2-5 pm At Opa Sushi in Cow Bay
Please come celebrate my  Newest Works inspired by our beautiful North Coast.

EVERYONE WELCOME.
Show runs until June 26th.

Art is your emotions flowing in a river of imagination.

It’s spring.  There are signs.  The rain remains unabated, a permanent feature of damp and cold.  While it is unlikely we will dip below freezing for the season it is not warm out. 

The girls usually take one weekend a year and head out to the ranch for a weekend on horseback.  A weekend of sleeping in a bunk house, sitting around a fire, eating, and riding through the high sub-alpine meadows in the stunning Driftwood Canyon looking out towards the Bulkley valley shadowed by the majestic Hudson Bay Mountain and it’s gleaming white Glacier . 

However for this year I had to give it a pass at over 6 months pregnant… horse back riding is apparently not recommended. So while I mourned the loss of a weekend in the saddle, I took the opportunity to do something else in life which I love….  ART!

Last weekend was the local Easel Weasel semi-annual art workshop.  This spring the artist we invited to teach was Nicole Best Rudderham. (http://nicolebestrudderham.com/).  Friday evening we met in the penthouse boardroom of a local hotel – the view from the wall of windows looking out over the harbour is inspiration in itself.  An uninterrupted view of the harbour, picturesque with the small islands across the way and the sleeping behemoths that are the anchored bulk carriers awaiting their cargo of grain, coal or logs all of which are exported across the pacific to Asian market.  After a lesson on Friday evening we touched paint to paper as the sun began to set in glorious colours.

With a full two days of painting following that auspicious beginning… I am once more inspired and have learned a few more techniques which I hope to continue to use.

Here is an unfinished look at one of the pieces I produced (although it still needs some refinement). 

Oona River Rock

©RiverWalker Arts

The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it. ~Author Unknown

Marking Spring by an Invasion of the RVs

It’s been between 8 and 11 degrees for the past two weeks.. and although the rain has let up and the day has proven to be warm and sunny, the forecast looking forward -  Monday through Friday does not vary... Rain. Low 8. High 11.  However... with Easter in the past and the May long weekend staring at us in the face... it seems that that spring is definitely here.  

Looking out the kitchen window, I see into the neighbouring cul-de-sac, where a  monstrous RV has been backed onto the lawn such that it became necessary to conduct significant pruning to the tree that once grew vigorously in the middle of the yard.  Parked on the curb in front of the fibreglass monstrosity is a jacked up chevy with an ATV balanced next to a large red fuel tank in the back,  completing the picture are the bush bar, winch and string of trendy “KC” flood lights mounted both on the grille guard, and roll bar.    

On the opposite side of the house, is my own sleepy cul-de sac.  Where my neighbour’s most recent guest has parked his “Toy Hauler”  which is basically a GIANT fifth wheels with a built in garage to hold anything from ATV’s, motorcycles, Jet Ski’s, etc.   I’m not sure what is being hauled around in the atrocity parked next to my driveway, but I’ve lived in houses that were smaller....

As if the RV’s were not enough, the fibreglass boats that have sprung up around town is a sure sign of spring.  

I have the fortune of living in a small isolated community located at the crossroads of two of this Province’s  best salmon producing rivers, the Nass River and the Skeena River...  despite over 100 local guides who charge upwards of $1000 per day, when spring comes (peak salmon season... but just as good for crab, prawns, halibut, rockfish etc.) the town swells under an influx of RV’s towing a whole variety of aluminum and fibreglass fishing boats... They come in droves for the fish that ply these waters. 

It is these boats that appear to be arriving, largely from out of province if the licence plates are any indication that marks the sure sign of spring.  

Spring has arrived... of that there is no doubt.... 

Now if only I could get the weather to cooperate....

I would love to get outside to paint!

 My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it.  ~Koos Brandt