Local artist, Marianne Parsons has hit the top 40 – the top 40 Canadian fibre artists, that is.

She’s one of 40 individuals from across Canada invited to participate in “It’s Time For Colour”, a show and sale of small quilts organized by the Canadian Quilters Association (CQA) to raise funds for the Children’s Wish Foundation. From late fall until June, 2015, these quilts and note cards will tour Canada, with their final exhibition at CQA’s Quilt Canada in Lethbridge, AB, June 4-6, 2015.

Her donated quilt, ‘Apple Blossom Time’, shows how Marianne uses unexpected materials to create her artwork. Hand-painted used dryer sheets with their web-like structure become delicate new leaves. Net, painted cheesecloth and lining create a dappled background. Petals are burned from sheer synthetics with a candle and details are supplied with machine and hand embroidery.

For over 30 years, Marianne has been teaching fibre art techniques, both traditional and innovative. Her work features contemporary materials and techniques often borrowed from other mediums e.g. painting, metal work and printmaking. Along with rulers and rotary cutters in her studio, you will find everything from styrofoam, candles, wood burning tools, coffee bags, and sheer curtains to knitted metal and aluminum cans. Nothing is sacred. If it can be stitched, it is fair game.

Marianne’s quilts have travelled a great deal, representing Canada in Japan, New Zealand Europe, and the US in international shows. In 2013, she won one of the top Canadian art quilt awards for her piece, ‘Set in Stone’, depicting fossils and rocks.

She is one of many fibre artists who are members of the local Double O Quilters Guild that meets at the Oliver Community Hall from September to May each year. For more information on Marianne or the guild, call 250-498-2370.

“This is an excellent show! A real art statement! This show could hold its own in Toronto!” said RipOff Artist Enid Baker. “But I am not sure Oliver is ready for this”. The Artist “garcilazo” shows us the world through his eyes with powerful haunting paintings!

“Everybody suffers in the name of what, God, religion, money? Do we enjoy killing each other” he asks. “As the human race we are not evolving, but we sure know how to kill each other! We start young, we kill the souls of children with technology, as we separate them from nature”. If it bleeds it leads, is the media message we live in. Like a car wreck we slow down to see if we can see blood! We like violence! “garcilazo” proves this!

“This is an excellent show! A real art statement! This show could hold its own in Toronto!” said RipOff Artist Enid Baker. “But I am not sure Oliver is ready for this”. The Artist “garcilazo” shows us the world through his eyes with powerful haunting paintings!

“Everybody suffers in the name of what, God, religion, money? Do we enjoy killing each other” he asks. “As the human race we are not evolving, but we sure know how to kill each other! We start young, we kill the souls of children with technology, as we separate them from nature”. If it bleeds it leads, is the media message we live in. Like a car wreck we slow down to see if we can see blood! We like violence! “garcilazo” proves this!

Oliver Art Gallery

Today’s wildlife paintings are a modern genre of the earliest paintings on
cave walls done by early man. Cave men mixed red and yellow ochre with fish
oil and painted their targeted food sources. Because they butchered these
animals they had a fair concept of the anatomy and looks of each animal.
Some of these paintings were naiive symbols, some realistic, and some
expressionistic and even bordering on abstract form.

Early painted portraits of kings, queens, aristocrats and even ordinary
people were often accompanied by animals that were their hunting dogs,
horses, foxes from the hunt, pheasants, grouse and deer that they shot. Most
of these were done in expressive realism and brought notoriety to the
persons who were depicted.

Lawrence of Arabia had his portrait done sitting on a camel. Exotic women
posed with lions and leopards.

Wildlife painting is so accepted and respected that there is a North
American Center for Wildlife Painting in Jacksonhole, Wyoming that is
visited by fans of this kind of painting from all over the world. Man’s
appreciation of his natural surroundings and the animals, fish and birds
within it make this a popular art form. A former Osoyoos resident, Fran
Jenkins, has had her large sculpted stone bears
exhibited here and for sale. The stone she used was mined locally in Kettle
River country.

Many artistic approaches are used to portray wildlife -in realism like
Robert Bateman, in impressionism like Eduard Degas’ horses or in abstract
form like Picasso’s animals.

At the Oliver Art Gallery we have a talented wildlife artist, Cameron
Ogilvie and also Bianca Craig. All of this Gallery’s artists have tried
their hand at wildlife paintings to exhibit in Sept. so please join us and
vote for your favorite!

The Gallery is pocated at 6046 Main Street, in Oliver and open Tuesday –
Saturday from 11:00AM – 4PM. We have two new artists that have joined the
Oliver Art Gallery. Jan Crawford from Penticton and Mina Battagin from
Osoyoos.
Come and see their paintings and all the wildlife art during September.
Look forward to the October Theme. In October we will be featuring Figures
of the human form.

Art work by Steve Staresina