19 Sept – 19 Dec 2023
GVPL Central Branch
735 Broughton St, Victoria, BC
Biography:
Born Lethbridge, Alberta March 1945. Art and ornithology have monopolized my life equally. My childhood was split between Saskatchewan an Ontario with very brief stays in Alberta and British Columbia. Educated at Western Technical Commercial in Toronto majoring in art. Studio 5 provided my first wage. Immigrated to Australia in 1971 and spent two years working for the University of Queensland banding birds. Art and ornithology linked when returning to Canada and joining the staff at the British Columbia Museum as curator of collections and illustrator of books and scientific papers. Self-employed from mid-1980’s as a freelance bird illustrator and stone carver at which time watercolour paintings of birds dominated my art sales with several one-man shows and pieces selling in galleries. I was also the author of several bird-finding guides that included the Costa Rica best seller and other foreign and provincial guides. Numerous articles for birding and nature history magazines and the appraised “Birds of Vancouver Island” were written. Art work took priority again some ten years ago principally as a retirement pastime when beginning a series of small, high-realism acrylic landscapes on paper and more recently birds in gouache on half-sheet watercolour paper.
Paintings have been shown twice at the Tulista Art Gallery, twice at the Roost Restaurant including “meet the artist exhibit”, twice at the Saanich Fair Art Gallery where two won second prize ribbons, at the Bubble Tea Place, three times at the Koffee Cafe, once at the Bruce Hutchison Library, twice at the Saanich Municiple Hall, once at the Cedar Hill Recreation Center, twice at the Coffee and Tea Cafe, one at the Fickle Fig Restaurant, and the McTavish Academy of Art. Several pieces have been accepted on three occasions to the juried Sooke Fine Art show and nine times to the juried Mary Winspear Fine Art show where one piece won the Juror’s Choice Award and two won honorable mention. Past awards include a portrait admitted to the National Diploma Collection of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour.
The latest project was illustrating the 38 species of duck that have occurred on Vancouver Island that took 2 1/2 years. Giclee prints are being produced with 5 each of ten paintings with the entire set to be printed eventually. The originals will be shown at the Tulista Art Gallery in spring of 2023.
