Lorraine Horn, a past winner at the Fall Art Show & Sale, is the solo artist at the Leza Macdonald Art Gallery for the month of April. See some of her bright trompe-l’œil paintings that just “pop” off the canvas. She’s not been an artist for long, says gallery owner Leza Macdonald, but she’s sure fine! Opening reception Thursday April 5th, 6  – 8 p.m.

SOAP Theatre presents Outside Mullingar (pronounced mull-in-GAR) by John Patrick Shanley, April 20-28 at the Fraank Venables Theatre. The play is romantic comedy about death and love that flirts with — and sometimes embraces — Irish cliches galore.

The play is set on the side-by-side farms of the Rileys and Muldoons. Anthony Riley lives with his widowed father Tony, and Rosemary Muldoon with her recently-widowed mother Aoife.

Amid the gallows humour, arguments over inheritance and property disputes, there is a shy romance brewing, all done in the poetic gift-for-gab style for which the Irish are famous.

Tony Riley threatens not to leave his farm to Anthony but sell it instead to his brother’s son, who looks more like a farmer. The news worries Rosemary Muldoon, who has an unrequited love for Anthony, and fears Anthony’s itchy feet will soon carry him away from  her.  She’s thirty-something, he’s in his forties. Both are single, adrift, depressed. Rosemary calls him “a bit of a lump” and scolds him for his lack of spunk and spark, but it’s obvious she cares for him. And what’s up with Anthony? She’s beautiful, available and right next door, but he seems uninterested. The mystery is why they haven’t gotten together.

Shanley infuses the play with spirituality. Rosemary hates the bible (“They should call it The Book of Awful Stories”) but in this Irish countryside characters hear voices, see “signs from heaven” and are “touched by the quiet hand of God.” Mullingar seems just the place for these quiet comic miracles.

Abridged from SOAP Theatre website and a May 2017 review by Vancouver-based Jerry Wasserman.

More information here: SOAP Theatre’s Outside Mullingar

Meet our wine barrel donors for the Wine Capital Art Walk. Thank you to:

Adega on 45th Estate Winery
Burrowing Owl Estate Winery
Culmina Family Estate Winery
Fairview Cellars
Hester Creek Estate Winery
Intersection Winery
Kismet Estate Winery
Moon Curser Vineyards
Nk’mip Cellars  (Arterra Wines)
Tinhorn Creek Vineyards

The Oliver Community Arts Council along with Oliver Tourism and Downtown Businesses is proud to present the Wine Capital Art Walk as part of the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival!    The main event occurs on the evening of Thursday May 10 from 6 – 8 p.m. Artists in a variety of media display and demonstrate their best work, sharing space with downtown businesses in the 6200 block of Main Street (between School and Bank Avenues). The art walk also includes wine tastings, live music, draws, children’s art activities, food vendors, and live art demonstrations.

One of the main attractions at the Wine Capital Art Walk is the Wine Barrel Art demonstration and silent auction, running Monday May 7 – Thursday May 10. The live art event features up to 15 skilled artists who transform wine barrels into cherished works of art.  They work daily from 10 – 4 p.m. on Main Street. Their activity is entertaining, educational and also promotes the art walk later in the week. Silent auction bids are accepted on site all week long, until 7:45 p.m. on Thursday May 10. The finished barrels are sold to the highest bidders on the Thursday evening.

At the opening reception, three winners received Best in Show awards at the FCA exhibit “Spring Palette” at The Art Gallery Osoyoos. Debbie Tougas of Oliver plaaced first with “Robbie Said.” In second place was Michael Jorden of Osoyoos for “Ride the High Country.” The third place winner was Marianne Meyer of Naramata for “If There is a Choice.” Four other artists won honorable mentions. catch all the art this week, until Saturday March 31. For more information on the  local chapter of the Federation of Canadian Artists, visit FCA- South Okanagan Similkameen

Pick up our new business card next time you’re at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre or when you see us at an event around town. 

A new member of the Oliver Community Arts Council, Wendy Wells-Bailey, has some impressive credentials as an artist, and her artwork positively glows. She is a brand-new member of the Okanagan Art Gallery (an OCAC member group) where you can see some of her work on display. 8302 Main St, Osoyoos, BC

The Musaic Vocal Ensemble is making another visit to Oliver this spring with music to “soothe and inspire”. This choir is known for their musicianship, their challenging repertoire, and balanced sound.  Their singing will make your ears very happy. Songs will include: “The Time Has Come” words by Nelson Mandela; A Little Jazz Mass, Let It Matter and many other great pieces.

Tickets available here:
Oliver Alliance Church
6835 Leighton Cres, Oliver BC
(250) 498-4253
or here:

Tickets for The Time Has Come 

Review by Jan Nelson

What do you get when you put a violinist, a cellist and a pianist together on the stage? You wouldn’t expect a night of laughing and musical entertainment, but that is exactly what The Joe Trio brought to the South Okanagan Concert Series’ season finale at the Frank Venables Theatre in Oliver on March 9^th.

The Joe Trio is composed of three unique musicians. Cameron Wilson brings his beautiful mastery of the violin along with his amazing talent for arranging pieces for a string and piano trio. With his dry sense of humour and brilliant ability to mimic a beginner violin student, he brought a sense of approachability to an instrument that can feel foreign to the average music enthusiast.

Pianist Allen Stiles has excellent comedic timing and amazing technique. He knows just how long to stretch out a joke while backing it up with a polished performance – my type of pianist. Cellist Charles Inkman has played with household names like John Denver and Beach Boys Legend Brian Wilson, and now has Oliver to add to the list of venues he has graced. Not to be outshone by his Trio-mates, Charles brings an added touch of class with his background in classical performance with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

The programme for the evening included refined pieces from Joseph ‘Papa Joe’ Haydn and Felix Mendelssohn, to The Sad Story of Little Joe Who Played the Violin, a comedic spoken word accented number that follows the path of Little Joe’s musical life. Even more traditional pieces were approached with a light heart; Mendelssohn’s piece was introduced as “four movements – the first is pretty long, the second is pretty short, the third is really short, and the fourth is not as long as you think it will be or feels like it will be.” Never short of banter, each piece painted yet another beautiful colour on an enjoyable evening.

In particular, two pieces stood out. A medley of songs from West Side Story adapted to piano trio by Cameron Wilson called for audience participation and a bit of pre-performance practice by the packed house. I think we did a better job during the practice, but The Joe Trio managed to make us sound good. A second piece that required audience participation was ‘Classic TV Themes meets the Great Composers;’ a series of TV themes from the 60s and 70s arranged by Wilson to sound like classical composers, and each correct answer guessing the theme and composer by the audience was rewarded with a chocolate placed carefully on stage for retrieval by the winner at intermission.

And not to be forgotten was an adaptation of Bohemian Rhapsody (yes, the one by Queen), a beautiful arrangement by Wilson of a classic rock ballad that would have made Freddy Mercury proud, although I’m sure Freddy would have appreciated a quick wardrobe change to set the mood.

I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying concerts at the Frank Venables Theatre (old and new) off and on since I was six, and I am grateful to wonderful performers like The Joe Trio for making the trip out to Oliver to share their talent with us, and to the Southern Okanagan Concert Series members, volunteers and audience members who keep us entertained tirelessly year after year. Thank you.

The Southern Okanagan Concert Society would like to thank their generous local sponsors for the 2017-2018 season, and looks forward to another entertaining season of musical enjoyment starting in the fall. The 2018-2019 season will feature the Mark Atkinson Trio on October 12, 2018, Duo Fortin-Poirier on February 15, 2019, and O-Celli cello octet (eight cellos!) on March 29, 2019, plus a fourth concert to be announced. Look for ticket information to be released soon.

The RipOff Artists are already thinking about their 2018 challenge! This local multimedia collective chooses a different dead artist each year to “rip off” in weaving, digital media, collage, quilting, felting, woodworking, encaustic, and a variety of painting and three-dimensional media.

They’ll be breaking barriers and tearing down walls by emulating Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) and his piece “Tres Personajes Cantando” (Three persons singing). Watch for news of their Summer Studio week at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre.

You can expect lots of colour and music!

Marion Trimble, collage and acrylics artist, provides some background:

Rufino Tamayo was a Mexican painter and printmaker known for his large-scale murals and vivid use of color. Like Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Jose Clemente Orozco,

Tamayo helped garner international attention for Mexican art. Influenced by his pre-Columbian heritage as well as Cubism and Surrealism, Tamayo portrayed vernacular subjects like watermelons and animals in a unique formal vocabulary.

“Art is a means of expression that must be understood by everybody, everywhere,” he stated.

“It grows out of the earth, the textures of our lives, and our experience.”

Born on August 26, 1899 in Oaxaca, Mexico, Tamayo left the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts after a year and began to teach himself. He moved to New York in the 1930s after having a falling out with the politically driven Rivera and Siqueiros in his home county.

Eventually returning to Mexico in 1959, he founded the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City and the Museo Rufino Tamayo in his birthplace of Oaxaca during the early 1980s. The artist continued to produce some of his most compelling works including Moon and Sun (1990) right up until his death on June 24, 1991 in Mexico City, Mexico at the age of 91. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis, among others.

Calling all Artists!

Tuc-el-Nuit Elementary School is looking to collaborate with a local artist who would be available to co-create a mural outside the Pat McGibbon Memorial Library in Tuc-el-Nuit Elementary school. The library entrance has double doors, the mural would be painted on either side of those doors. See photos for examples. The mural would be to inspire a love of reading among its students and send positive messages through the title choices. The school is hoping to have the mural completed before the end of the year. Interested artists are asked to contact Marlene Kearsley at (250) 498-3415 with samples of their work. A small stipend and large amount of pride and recognition is offered.

Marlene Kearsley
Teacher-Librarian, ELL, LS
250 498-3415

From Spain to Mexico and back to Canada, Flamenco Rosario invites audiences on a global voyage through dance. This April on the Frank Venables Theatre Stage the rhythm and song, hand-clapping and sweeping movements of “La Monarca” will be a unique experience.

Flamenco’s beautifully rhythmic style highlights these artists’ passion, raw emotional power and disciplined musicality. “La Monarca” gives insight into the motivation and driving forces of immigration through the creative exploration of the monarch butterfly’s amazing migration.

Rosario Ancer and her husband, guitarist Victor Kolstee moved to Vancouver in 1989 after a successful career in Spain. They co-founded the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival along with their school Centro Flamenco, and The Flamenco Rosario Arts Society.

As an interpreter of flamenco, Rosario is continuing the growth of the art form by exploring new possibilities. She brings with her an 8 member company of dancers and musicians to share this emergent, beautiful and unexpected new work.

Flamenco Rosario arrives on stage with “La Monarca” Monday April 9th at 7:30 p.m. at the Frank Venables Theatre, 6100 Gala St, (corner of Fairview Rd.) Oliver is a dance town and these highly sought after tickets are now available. Visit www.venablestheatre.ca or the Theatre Box Office Tuesday to Thursday from 10 – 3 for tickets and more information.

For further information, contact Aimee Grice, Marketing and Promotions Coordinator for the Frank Venables Theatre, by phone or email.

(250) 498-1626     tix @ venablestheatre.ca

Image Credit: David Cooper / Pictured are Rosario Ancer and Victor Kolstee