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Two combinations of four artists coming down to Earth
Paul Boultbee and Glynis Wilson Boultbee’s collaboration over the word “strata” inspiring Paul’s paintings which are reflected in Glynis’s poems. This Albertan duo examines earth, layers and segments of society in organic conceptual description.
Abstract artist Paul Boulbee is as relaxed as his unpretentious collage and “surface” paintings. Intially a passionate professional actor, Paul is a librarian along with, more recently, an emerging visual artist graduating from Red Deer College’s Visual Art program. Using mainly earthy, natural tones with stratums of texture, this series is quite obviously inspired by archaeology and anthropology – an exploration of varied techniques and subject matter.
Paul has been referred to by Glynis as an interesting juxtaposition: “Librarians work within pretty clear structures and rules. Artists thrive on the tension between order and disorder, structure and chaos.”
Glynis Boultbee has been an avid writer for more than 20 years creating short stories and experimenting in a wide range of genres including essays, fairy tales for adults, poetry and is currently working on a theatrical script. Of late, she has discovered that collaborations with visual artists stimulates her productive writing. Deeply inspired by the language of the earth, her reflective poems are lighthearted and provocative. Glynis challenges herself to see things with fresh eyes, to see extra-ordinary in the ordinary. Working across the disciplines, she is excited about her goal to eventually create a show that marries her own paintings and/or photographs with her creative writing.
Bowen Island artists Susan Clarke & Catherine Bayly join forces to fill the cases with earthy functional art.
Susan Clarke of Crowstone pottery is a long time Bowen Island resident, where she works and plays producing “classic” designed, quality, high-fired stoneware pottery. Her soft delicate glazes and ornamentation create themes of colour-coordinated collections of specialty wares such as quiche & sushi dishes, rice bowls, casserole sets, and soap dispensers. Of course, traditional mugs, tea pots and vases are plentify.
Clarke’s workshop is in her home, surrounded by her loving extended family.
Her hobbies include cooking, gardening, reading, yoga and walking her dogs round Killarney Lake every morning with friends. Clarke is pleased to show and sell her work in Squamish and she will be at the Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver this summer. Her clay works are sold through B.C. shops and galleries, including her own retail outlet “Vonigo” on Bowen Island.
Anthropologist, photographer and artist, Catherine Bayly uses her Bowen Island surroundings to find inspiration for her one of a kind textural mirrors, candle sconces and wall racks. Coloured imprints of ferns and leaves or dragonfly and paisley motifs adorn her functional collection. In many of her pieces, actual ferns and leaves are used as imprints to create design in her work as well as the use of symbols from various cultures. Her palette of earthy grey, brown and green tones are a reflection of the natural beauty of the landscape.
Bayly is self-taught in the process that she is using. Her creations began with a desire to make museum experiences for the visually impaired more exciting and relevant so she looked for a way to create “artifacts” that could be touched and studied. She states, “There was a need to create exhibits that would be durable enough for people to touch - and capable of capturing the most delicate features of the objects being reproduced.” Bayly, experimenting with plaster and polymer combinations, found that perfect mix which is the now the basis for her craft.
Toby Jaxon
The Squamish Chief