Virtual Art Exhibition – Aurora Stories by Brandy Saturley

Aurora Stories is now open, this virtual art exhibition is accessible worldwide and runs 24 hours daily until May 12, 2023. Featuring over 25 paintings from the artist’s oeuvre created over the past 17 years, that reference the Aurora Borealis.

Aurora Stories Virtual Exhibition

Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, is a natural phenomenon that has captivated human beings for centuries. This stunning light show is caused by the interaction between the Earth’s magnetic field and solar winds, resulting in shimmering curtains of green, pink, purple, and blue light in the night sky. The Aurora Borealis holds immense cultural significance for many indigenous communities around the world, including the Sami people of Scandinavia, the Inuit of Canada, and the Yupik of Alaska. For these cultures, the Northern Lights are considered a spiritual and mystical experience, representing the presence of ancestors and spirits.

Aurora Stories Virtual Exhibition

Ahead of Their Time – original acrylic on canvas painting about shape-shifting under the Aurora Borealis.

The aurora is rich with spiritual traditions, with most involving the spirits of the departed. The Canadian Inuit believe that souls of the dead dance in the aurora. Sometimes the spirits are carrying torches to guide those still in this world. The Inuit call the aurora ‘aksarnirq’.

Over the last 17 years of traveling Canada and making art influenced by these travels, I have found myself exploring stories of the mystical Aurora in my paintings many times. These are otherworldly, spiritual, and symbolic paintings executed with a ‘collage-like’ style of placing objects and figures in settings where they exist in the same landscape. These visual stories incorporate northern animals such polar bear and elk, and scenes of humans playing hockey under the dancing colours and light. In one painting your see a portrait that features a metamorphosis and shape-shifting between women, in others you see humans enjoying celebrations of this magical event. These paintings offer surreal stories that are magical and transcendent.

Aurora Stories Virtual Exhibition

Aurora Stories – virtual art exhibition featuring paintings inspired by the Aurora Borealis

This is my first virtual exhibition for 2023, something I began experimenting with well before the pandemic and something that served my art practice well during the pandemic as it allows people all over the world the opportunity to enjoy an art exhibition, from wherever they live, all that is required is an Internet connection.

You are invited to view ‘Aurora Stories’ now.

Aurora Stories Virtual Exhibition

Aurora Stories – install view of virtual art exhibition

See more paintings by Brandy Saturley.

Canadian Artist Brandy Saturley working on a painting about our relationship with polar bears, in her Vancouver Island studio.

BIO: Brandy Saturley is an acclaimed Canadian contemporary painter and multidisciplinary visual artist known for her striking and colorful depictions of Canadian landscapes, cultural icons, peoples, wildlife, and sports figures. An internationally exhibited Canadian Artist, Brandy Saturley’s paintings have garnered the Victoria, BC born painter notoriety as ‘the Voice of Canadian Pop Art’.

Painting with Lawren Harris

Dochka Rising: original painting by Contemporary Canadian Painter, Brandy Saturley

Learn more about this Canadian Artist here.

Filled With Snow – Group Exhibition in Banff, Alberta

For Snow Days in Banff, Willock & Sax Gallery is presenting a group art exhibition by their gallery artists, “Filled With Snow”. This group art exhibition in downtown Banff, Alberta features paintings by Brandy Saturley, Mitchell Fenton, George Weber, Margaret Shelton, Linda Craddock, Murray Hay and Martha Houston, to name a few. There is also fine art photography by Tom Willock on view and available for collecting. Running from January 18 – 31, 2023.

King of The Polar Bears | Acrylic On Canvas – 36 x 48 x 1.5 in – (91.44 x 121.92 x 3.81 cm) – Brandy Saturley

Group Exhibition Banff Alberta

King of the Polar Bears rides on the roof of a scarlet red JEEP wrangler, snow capped Mt. Robson in the background. Taking a road trip through the rocky mountains of Canada. Adapting to the changing climate, he is out for fun and adventure. Discovering new sights, sounds and experiences.

In recent years, as wildfires ignite across the globe and ocean levels rise, artists have been faced with expressing their feelings in paint about the crisis of our times. We are seeing more Art and paintings confronting the global warming crisis, more than ever. We can feel the urgency in our bones to address social and political issues as we are vessels of society who soak it all in and pour it out onto the canvas. For me, I have felt the call and seen these issues subtly and subconsciously spill into in my art over the years. It is impossible to ignore, when you feel the heat and see the floods. Art can be a beacon of hope, lighting the way and compelling us to act. It most certainly compels me to paint, offering a beautiful and visual way to express my thoughts on the global conversation.

Polar Bears are magical creatures, loved by many. They are some of my favourite polar bear paintings. If you are in Canada, Manitoba is the place to go to see this largest land mammal, in the northern city of Churchill. Polar Bear symbolism and meaning varies amongst tribes. The Polar Bear teaches endurance and resourcefulness, a powerful and wise spirit animal. These white beauties often stir deep emotions in humans, especially now as their habitats are disappearing due to global warming. The Polar Bear is seen as a guiding spirit when facing dramatic life transitions, especially at the onset of a new path or major change in life. Seems timely as we are just coming through a challenging two years under the Covid pandemic and life as we know it is new again.

Churchill Manitoba is a place I plan to explore in the coming years. I want to study the polar bears and their behaviors up close, coming home to my studio to create new work informed by my time in Churchill. The next artist residency for a Canadian Artist painting themes of Canada.

See more polar bear paintings by Brandy Saturley.

Art Show Near Me – Addressing Community Through Art

Brentwood Bay, BC – COMMUNITY a Group Art Show near me on Vancouver Island. Staying Creative Gallery is proud to present COMMUNITY, a group exhibition featuring local artists residing in and around the Saanich Peninsula and Greater Victoria. Artists of varied backgrounds and career stages present their thoughts on the theme of community. From collage to acrylic, oil and watercolour, from representational to abstract, this show will feature the artist perspective on their experience with communities in Canada. Featuring the work of 15 contemporary Canadian visual artists, this show brings a ‘fresh’ view and experience to the community of Brentwood Bay.

For this show I will be exhibiting a piece inspired by the community of Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

In 2016, I spent the year travelling across Canada and into the Northern Territories. The purpose of my exploration was to absorb and interact with Canadians and cultures across the country as I built reference material for a body of work inspired by authentic ‘Canadian’ experiences, which would become known as my ‘Pop Canadianisms’. These ‘Pop Canadianisms’ were presented in touring solo shows of my work in 2017. While travelling to and exploring these communities I was welcomed by artists in each area. I spent many days touring and learning about their communities. Time spent hiking, sketching, photographing and writing. This painting, ‘Cottage Royalty’ came from one such visit to a community in the Northern Territories, spending a week in the town of Yellowknife. It was summer, midnight sun time of year. It is a time when darkness never really falls and days are endless. This time of year there is an energy throughout the community as neighbors gather to take advantage of the long days. It is an incredibly creative and celebratory time as we danced from backyard to backyard, circling around fire pits and patios that became stages. In every yard there were storytellers, dancers, singers and artists of all kinds. We were sharing our thoughts, days, projects, ideas, jokes and generally just having a great time under daylight bright skies at the hour of midnight and beyond. Most yards come with canoes, skulls, and brightly coloured Muskoka chairs. This backyard had an elevated patio with one brightly coloured canary yellow chair. A string of red Christmas lights behind the chair as if it were a throne in the center of a backyard stage that would host a storyteller. This is a Canadian community in every sense of the word. For me this chair elevates anyone in the community to royalty as they take the throne and weave a story, tell a joke or sing a song. Northern cottage royalty.

I am obsessed with the iconography of Canada, and in turn I am creating my own. What informed my work began with ‘popular culture’ and stereotype. Over the years I became more interested in ‘authentic experiences’ and I began to travel to gain a true understanding of the collective Canadian consciousness, and in returning home to Vancouver Island, a better understanding of the culture in which I was raised. My practice focuses on acrylic painting on canvas, and over the years has incorporated collage, photography, writing, and video. My paintings encompass themes related to Canadian popular culture, symbolism, and the landscape; distinctly rendered in my signature pop realism aesthetic and vivid palettes.

COMMUNITY – A Group Exhibition runs September 9th to October 23rd, 2022 at Staying Creative Gallery, 103-7162 W. Saanich Rd., Brentwood Bay, BC – www.StayingCreativeGallery.com

 

Art Near Me

Community A Group Exhibition Poster

Community – Staying Creative Gallery – September 2022

Art Show Near Me

Cottage Royalty – Acrylic – 24 x 24 x 1.5 in – Brandy Saturley

See more paintings by Brandy Saturley.

Society of Canadian Artists 54th International Open Exhibition Features Portrait by Brandy Saturley

It is the 54th year for the Society of Canadian Artists Open International Exhibition, featuring paintings from across Canada in one location in Toronto. The 54th show will take place live at Papermill Gallery, Todmorden Mills Heritage Site in Toronto. From portraits to landscapes and abstracts, this fine art show presents world class original Canadian Art. Art is a voice. And in Canada – where our unique diversity of language, landscape and passion nurtures the creative spirit like few other places on earth – our artists comprise a chorus. Sometimes elegant, sometimes discordant. Through sculpture and paint, video and design software, cameras and conté crayons, the creative are saying something. In a country so creatively diverse, art is an anthem. The Society of Canadian Artists wants the world to know the tune. The SCA is committed to strengthening its national presence in Canada by promoting excellence in traditional forms of artistic expression, and by encouraging acceptance and growth of contemporary and experimental forms of visual art.

This show will be presenting a portrait from Brandy Saturley, from her ‘People of Canada Portrait Project‘. The project was a crowd-sourced and collaborative journey between an award-winning Canadian painter and Canadians. Launched during Canada’s Sesquicentennial in 2017, this project continues to unfold. Focusing on the people that make Canada a diverse and culturally rich country. From our cities to our oceans, from our mountains to our lakes, from our homes to our havens.  The portrait tells the story of a father and daughter under Canadians skies. The two are holding red heart balloons tied to Tim Horton’s cups. They stand at the shores of the great lakes, the phrase ‘You Are Here’ is written in the sand. A gaggle of Canadian Geese fly past in the distance. A very Canadian painting now available for sale. This is the first ‘live’ public presentation of the piece.

The exhibition will take place from August 4th through August 27th with an Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony are August 5, 2022. Contact us for more information.

Society of Canadian Artists 54th Annual

Sooke Fine Arts Show 2022 – features painting Ukraine Strong

A native of the Sooke area, it is always a pleasure to show work with the Sooke Fine Arts Show. It is Vancouver Island’s premier adjudicated art exhibition, celebrating it’s 36th year. The show always surprises and engages while providing the opportunity for the finest artists from Vancouver Island and BC’s coastal islands to showcase and sell their work. Brandy Saturley spent the first 17 years of her life as a resident of Sooke and will always hold this place near and dear. Growing up she would always look forward to the annual show which began when she was just 14 years old. Years later she has exhibited and sold her work worldwide, but never forgets where it all began. She has exhibited with the show a number of times over the years including one year where she exhibited alongside her mother.

For this year’s edition she will be exhibiting a new painting inspired by her Ukrainian heritage and honoring the people of Ukraine and immigrants to Canada. The piece titled, Ukraine Strong, is a self-portrait of the artist wearing Canadian plaid shirt of red and black, a Ukrainian headdress and arm bent with fist showing, reminiscent of Rosie the Riveter. In the crook of her bent arm, pressed between forearm and bicep, a Ukrainian Easter (pysanka) egg decorated in the colours of the Ukrainian flag of yellow and blue. In the background a field of wheat and blue sky horizon.

Sooke Fine Arts Show 2022

The 2022 LIVE Sooke Fine Arts Show takes place at the SEAPARC Leisure Complex, 2168 Phillips Rd in Sooke July 22-Aug 1, 2022. The show runs daily from 10am to 7pm. Be one of the first of 9,000+ guests to lay eyes on hundreds of original works of fine art! The 2022 show kicks off with an exciting Purchasers’ Preview event on Thursday, July 21 @ 7:00pm – an exclusive, ticketed event that allows early access to the 2022 artworks before the show opens to the public the next day. The Sooke Fine Arts Society respectfully acknowledges the traditional territory of the T’Sou-ke First Nation, upon whose land we gather in celebration of the arts.

Sooke Fine Arts Show 2022

The Hockey Art Show – 19 Paintings About Ice Hockey

The Hockey Show is an exciting retrospective art show of 19 paintings about the game of ice hockey by Canadian Visual Artist Brandy Saturley, created between 2011-2022.

The collection features many famous paintings spanning more than a decade. The show includes the iconic Goalie’s Mask Painting (Goalie’s Mask: Red, White and Dryden) which was shortlisted for an Olympic trophy in 2013. You will also find a number of works which reference both the Habs (Montreal Canadians Hockey club) as well as the Edmonton Oilers and the iconic Lord Stanley’s Cup. One of the most humorous and memorable pieces in the show, ‘Death of A Rookie’, references hockey legend.  The painting is an ode to Oliers Steve Smith, in the style of Jacques Louis David, referencing The Death of Marat painting created in 1793. “Saturley’s Death of a Rookie, Rise of a Hero is a take on the political painting The Death of Marat by French painter Jacques-Louis David, 1793. In Death of a Rookie, Rise of a Hero we see Oilers #5 (Steve Smith) sitting up in a tub surrounded with empty beer bottles while holding a letter and a pen. The letter that Smith is holding states: “Dear Grant, I have no words…, I’m sorry. So very sorry…”

This letter is in response to Smith’s rookie year when he scored a critical goal on his own goalie in the divisional final that allowed the Calgary Flames to move forward to the Stanley Cup. Grant Fuhr was the Oilers goalie that Smith scored on. The French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat in the painting The Death of Marat is found in the same position, but, unlike Smith, Marat has been murdered by political enemy Charlotte Corday. Corday blamed Marat for the September Massacre (a wave of killings in Paris and other cities in late summer 1792 during the French Revolution). The huge backlash received by Smith after scoring on his own team can be perceived as similar to the actions of Marat against his own people. But this is where the analogy ends; Smith recovered and went on to be a valued player by the Oilers and when they won the Stanley Cup the following year, Wayne Gretzky (opposite of Marat’s Charlotte Corday), handed him the cup to skate a lap at the arena. Death of a Rookie, Rise of a Hero is about perseverance and continuing on when the chips are down.

There is also a piece that celebrates the Habs famous hockey line, ‘The Punch Line’, as well as a current piece that celebrates the Canadian Women’s Olympic Gold winning team. A few of the recent works reference childhood and the inception point for the love of hockey on outdoor ice rinks. No matter your experience with the game of ice hockey, whether a hockey fan, or an art fan, you will find something that makes you smile in these artworks.

The show opens June 2, 2022 and runs until June 15th. The show is being presented in a three dimensional virtual art gallery accessible by visiting http://www.hockeypainting.com 

hockey art show