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Art Benefits

Art Benefits: spring home issue YAM Magazine

The March/April issue of YAM Magazine includes a feature about the benefits of art, and how a well chosen original piece of Art enriches your home. The selected artworks come from a number of Vancouver Island and local Victoria fine artists; painters, sculptors, wood and glass artists. I’m delighted to say the feature includes one of my landscape paintings, created in Summer 2020. A painting of the road to Red Rocks in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. In the feature I talk about my distinct style of Canadian Pop Art painting, what art adds to a home and how I feel about seeing my work on the wall of a collectors beautiful home. You can read more including what I think about matching art to the couch, online here.

If you are in the greater Victoria area, you can pick up a copy of the current issue at the following locations.

See more detailed images of the featured painting, ‘A Long and Winding Road’ here.

YAM Magazine – full interview with Victoria, BC based artist Brandy Saturley

What mediums do you work in and how do you describe your work?

My primary medium is Acrylic paint on canvas. I prefer large format; most of my work is 4×3 feet in size. My practice includes photography for reference. In between paintings I enjoy exploring outside, with my Nikon camera in tow. Photography offers the opportunity to get out and experience life from a new perspective and new vantage points, fueling future creativity back home in my studio.

I paint Canadian Pop Art style paintings. My palette is vivid, stylized and contains elements of realism set against abstract backgrounds. I coined the term ‘Pop Canadianisms’ which refers to my series of paintings which comment on Canadian popular culture and the landscape.

Signature subjects include:
Canadiana, Landscapes, Hockey, & Portraits

What do you think art adds to a home? Is there anything specific that paintings bring in this regard?

As an artist I live with a lot of Art! In simple terms, Art adds beauty, pause, décor, style, energy, and value. Art is an investment in good health, culture, and your home. A few years ago, I sold several paintings to a collector in Cordova Bay who had just finished building their dream home. When it came time to sell their home, they kept the art in place for real estate tours, and most clients wanted to buy the art with the house. The collector declined selling the art with the home, taking it with them to their new home in Edmonton.

For me, the most important thing art adds is an inception point for future conversations. A well-crafted piece of art offers a starting point for conversation, a reflection of one’s tastes, and escape. Original art on your wall offers a vacation from reality and the stresses of the day. Art offers a moment of meditation, a place where your mind can wander and rejuvenate. When you cannot get outside, or take that vacation, Art provides a place for your mind to escape.

How do you feel when you see a piece of your art displayed in someone else’s home?

Grateful! A piece of my art in someone else’s home means SOLD. It means my art and my voice will live on and be passed down through generations of family. It means a collector connected to something in the work, enough to want to display it in their beautiful home or business.

Do you have a favourite space in a home to be displayed?

My work is made for a large wall, a feature wall, a place where people gather or enter. My work is for collectors who change the couch to go with the art, and not the Art that goes with the couch.

Feature wall at a front entrance, dining room wall, a room where you entertain. My work features well in eclectic and custom spaces, my vivid palettes work well with a range of interior decors and styles. People buy my work because they love it.

Do you ever do commissions? Yes, when I have time in my schedule. Most recently I created a custom piece for a client in Oak Bay.

Where can people find your art to buy? I am a full-time self-representing artist You can begin with viewing the artwork on my website: https://www.brandysaturley.com/

My work is also available with Adele Campbell Fine Art in Whistler, Canada.

March 4, 2021

Ice Skating Paintings

New Paintings

Exhilarating ice skating paintings exude feelings of freedom and joy!

Continuing on with a year exploring outdoor sports and pastimes of winter, these active paintings celebrate ice skating on glacial lakes. Beginning in January this year, the celebration kicked off with two new paintings exploring the playful discovery of hockey outdoors. These pond hockey paintings created in the first month of 2021, feature glacial hues and the joy of play, bursting with colour and enthusiasm. Moving through this new body of work, my attention turned to figure skates and the romance, energy, and grace of figure skaters on outdoor ice.

Even though I am tucked away in a basement studio with augmented lighting, I was able to escape to the outdoor skating rinks provided by glacial lakes of the Canadian Rockies, and Lake Louise in particular. It is a place I have visited a few times, both in Winter and Summer, and it continues to command my attention. Perhaps some of the reasons we are continually drawn to this beautiful location, from places all over the globe, are the beautiful color palette, the crisp mountain air, the sounds of nature and the lake. But could we also be drawn to this place for another reason? Recently I did some digging and discovered some very deep ideas about the energy found in this place. There is an energetic geometry found at Lake Louise, which to anyone with a camera, a brush, or a sense of symmetry, you will see immediately. Lake Louise is one of many ‘energy vortex’ locations on Earth which acts as a swirling center of energy, containing more earthly energy than most places. Many believe that energy vortexes exist at the intersections of ley lines or the random lines of natural energy that make up the Earth’s electromagnetic field.

Some other well known energy vortex locations on Earth include Stonehenge, Sedona Cathedral Rock, Haleakala Volcano, Great Pyramid of Giza, Mayan Ruins at Tulum and the Bermuda Triangle. Many vortexes continue to be reported to bring feelings of peace, harmony, balance, and tranquility; while others are believed to promote personal reflection, deep insight, and a clear mind. Others still act as powerful centers of physical or emotional rejuvenation. Some even say they may be the healthiest spots on Earth. It is no wonder that droves of tourists are attracted to Lake Louise annually.

Here are the third and fourth paintings of 2021; filled with scenery, energy, escape and joyful hues. Celebrating ice skating outdoors.

TWIRL: a figure skater twirls and jumps as her blades sketch stories into the glacial lake ice. Aerial views offering a unique abstract perspective.

VORTEX: twin skaters with long auburn hair and a lone hockey puck. Dreamy in Canada.

These paintings celebrating outdoor ice skating are alive with vivid colours of teal, lime, violet, red and orange against a range of blues. With the palette of each my goal was to capture the electricity and energy of skating outdoors in Winter and specifically the energy found at Lake Louise. To create my signature smoothness and texture, I utilized a myriad of painting techniques I have developed over the last twenty years as an artist. These pieces were created using my handmade Rosemary paintbrushes from England, my gloved hands blending with fingers on canvas, as well as random household bristle brushes to produce the snow and ice effects.

All over the planet humans know how to celebrate long Winters, through making the outdoors our indoors. I hope these paintings transport you to these locations, much like they did during my process of painting them on canvas. These paintings are for sale; add them to your art collection today.

Sincerely Yours,

Brandy Saturley (a.k.a #iconiccanuck )

March 3, 2021

Family of Artists

Art Career

Family of Artists: from grandmother, to mother, to daughter.

My grandmother had a hard life. Like many of her time, she immigrated to the Canadian prairies in the early 1900’s from the Ukraine and built a life in a one room home on the open prairie of Edmonton, Alberta. Winters were cold and harsh, and so was her job as wife, mother and business owner with her husband. My grandparents were the owners of a popular BBQ restaurant in South Edmonton, which quickly became popular for it’s crispy fried chicken and tender ribs. The business grew to include a nightclub and the family grew to three children, through two marriages. I did not know my grandmother, as she died while my mother was carrying me in her womb. From what I have been told, and the photos I have seen, she was a kind woman who loved to cook, laugh and take care of people. She was a true Ukrainian Baba and was creative in every area of daily living. She would spend the day cooking, sewing, weaving, and eventually found a way to add art into her life. She was always seeking new creative outlets, an escape from everyday life with an alcoholic husband, and demanding business and household on the cold barren prairie.

Mom and Baba pre 1970.

When I was a child, my mother would tell me stories about my grandmother, how they shared a very close relationship and how they both enjoyed cooking and finding ways to escape through creative pursuits. I grew up painting, drawing, cooking and reading with my mother, though drawing quickly became my favourite thing. Watching my mom cook became a comforting spectator sport with great benefits of licking the spoon, and sampling the freshly baked loaves of French bread. My mother was endlessly making things with me and drawing everyday, I suppose it is how I came to love it. Early on I learned that my mother spent her school days perched on a corner stool drawing portraits, something I also did in school and it was often a way to make friends and meet new people. I remember finding a book of poetry tucked into a sock drawer and then questioning my mom about it, I grew to learn that she also enjoyed writing, and keeping a diary. My mom always talked about having her own business or going to art school but her father, as he did to my grandmother before her, never saw the point in such pursuits. Cooking remained the daily creative escape for my mother, much like her mother before. Feeding people always gave my grandmother and mother such joy, they wanted to take care of people, that was their job and culturally Ukrainian women are known for their great feasts and long welcoming tables. This was the world I grew up in; long tables, big feasts, gregarious people, and the odd lost soul wandering the street, invited in for dinner with the family.

Mom and I on the front page of the Sooke News Mirror

My mother never groomed me to take over from her as homemaker, but she did instill in me the love of making art, and I took to it naturally. I wanted nothing to do with cooking, entertaining, or mothering, I wanted to nurture my own career aspirations, which ultimately led to a full-time career as a visual artist. Somehow these women passed down the ‘artist gene’ without any of the pressure to lead a traditional life. There have been societal pressures along the way, from women and men, and it did take me some time to find my way through the gauntlet of expectations, reflected on myself by the faces of society.

Fast-forward to present day. My mother has been working on downsizing and donating things and clearing the clutter of the family home. Earlier this year she gifted me two landscape paintings made by my grandmother. I had seen them floating around various family homes over the years and never really knew the story of the paintings, or how my grandmother managed to get away with painting without my grandfather noticing.

While clearing the clutter she also found an old handwritten recipe book of my grandmother, and that in the back there were humorous writings about Hollywood stars beauty regimes. I said that I would love to have it and try to preserve it. Upon reading through the notebook I flipped to some random pages in the back of the book, one page in particular caught my eye. On this page there was a list with a title, “Painting” and underneath a list including painting supplies, frames and even lessons, with approximate costs. It is a budget of sorts and a list of expenditures for painting. What a find, I am so happy that I did not pass on this opportunity to own this piece of my grandmothers creative past. A treasure, bringing me a little closer to the woman who started the family artist ball rolling! With this gift also came some of my grandmothers weaving in traditional Russian/Ukrainian cultural patterns.

I’m sure there is a lot out there written about the ‘creative gene’ all I know is those early days are important, and burn undeniable impressions onto our being. Those early days define us, and we carry them through life. Often spending our lives running away from them, only to return home, once we understand them more fully. Most recently I talked more about this special connection between my grandmother, mother and me in the short documentary film; The Iconic Canuck, by Randy Frykas.

Thank you Mom.

Sincerely Yours,

Brandy Saturley

February 10, 2021

West Coast Contemporary

Art Collector Homes

Whether Architecture or Art, West Coast Contemporary is a minimalist pause for the senses.

If I were to choose one word that defines the west coast of Canada and Vancouver Island, it would be solitude. Whether you were born here, or moved here to escape Canadian winter, you will find yourself soothed by nature’s pause. Growing up on Vancouver Island means time spent exploring grey sand beaches for beautiful jewel toned and sand polished bits of glass. You hop from beach rock to log then to sand like a cougar, and you have likely encountered a few on your adventures. You are surrounded by soothing sounds of nature; the waves pushing and pulling rocks on the beach deliver cavernous echoes, the rain producing tones of radio wave static, and the birds offering flute-like sonatas. This is the symphony of the west coast, this is where West Coast Contemporary is born.

Vancouver Island is contemporary, minimalist and modern. The palette is a range of cool greens from moss to emerald, set against warm colours of yellow and red cedar. Vivid contrasts against the bright red-oranges of the Arbutus trees set against the complimentary blues of the ocean, lakes, and sky. The architecture here echoes the palette of nature, as does most of the art produced on the island. As we experience mild winters and much rain, rather than white snow, we are known for our dramatic winter skies from Payne’s grey to cool grey.

Perhaps this is why colour excites me so much. Pure, vivid, lively and energetic punches of pure colour, I am passionate about my ‘pop’ palettes. Recently I completed a new painting, after a visit to the Tofino area of Vancouver Island. Known for it’s surf and distinctly west coast food and culture, there is inspiration around every corner. While there I experienced a range of moods and tones, set by the dramatically changing weather.

A new painting born of west coast adventure, this is ‘West Coast Solitude’.

Another painting that captures the minimalistic beauty of contemporary west coast design is this bold piece inspired by a visit to Point No Point resort.

Bringing two paintings together from different times, both modern and minimalist in design and both very symbolic imagery of the west coast of Canada. Both paintings also feature the iconic Hudson’s Bay point blanket, the classic with cream wool and signature HBC stripe colours. The most recent piece offering a romantic west coast afternoon sipping port wine wrapped in the blanket, the earlier work featuring a black bear skull with red Japanese maple leaf on the frontal lobe of the bear’s skull.

Two contemporary west coast paintings in the artists’ North Saanich studio.

A little taste of West Coast contemporary, bringing nature and pops of vivid colour into your home, elevating your home and adding to the conversations you will have with your guests next time you entertain.

See more Art from Brandy Saturley.

February 9, 2021

Pond Hockey Paintings

New Paintings

Capturing the Feeling of Outdoor Pond Hockey, On Canvas.

The upside of COVID, a return to enjoying hockey, in the great outdoors. Whether on a pond, backyard rink, or an iconic and scenic outdoor lake; we are embracing a return to enjoying playing hockey outdoors. These pond hockey paintings, celebrate a return to the enjoyment of hockey.

In 2020, I let isolation lead when producing new paintings under a pandemic culture. With a new year, a new start and fresh perspective on the paintings I want to make to celebrate what connects us most; our love of nature and celebration of the great outdoors. Working in paintings two by two, I am exploring our Winter pastimes on snow, ice, and ocean. Completed in February this year, my first two paintings celebrate falling in love with hockey again, outdoors. Returning to the child and those pure moments of discovery and enjoyment, on ice. Here are the first two paintings of 2021, filled with ice, snow, innocence, celebration and discovery.

Pond Hockey Days (Salad Days on Ice): whether you play shinny, pond hockey or on the backyard rink; this is where hockey was born and became part of the culture, worldwide.

The Prodigy: looking through the ice upwards to the Northern sky. A shadowy figure of a young boy in a red sweater and toque, with mittens and with hockey skates. He reaches out towards a black rubber hockey puck, the prodigy is born.

These paintings celebrating outdoor hockey are alive with vivid colours of red and orange against a range of blues. With the palette of each my goal was to capture the electricity and energy of playing outdoors in the Winter. To create my signature smoothness and texture, I utilize a myriad of painting techniques I have developed over the last twenty years as an artist. These pieces were created using my handmade Rosemary paintbrushes from England, my gloved hands blending with fingers on canvas, as well as everyday paint rollers to produce the snow and ice effects.

In Canada, we know how to celebrate our long Winter, through making the outdoors our indoors.

Cheers to all the outdoor hockey lovers! The Prodigy has SOLD, Pond Hockey Days is available to own today. Pay in full up front, or finance from $176/month through our partner Art Lease Canada.

Sincerely Yours,

Brandy Saturley (a.k.a #iconiccanuck )

February 4, 2021

Peninsula News Review

PRESS

Talking Art During COVID with Peninsula News Review

“I just feel the internal need to say something about the time that we are in. Sometimes I make paintings that are pretty paintings, but sometimes I make paintings that talk about events that are happening in the world, I think both are important.” Talking art in the time of COVID-19 with Nina Grossman for the Peninsula News Review, Sidney/North Saanich News.

2020 was a year, for all of us, and for this ‘ Iconic Canuck’ it was a year where I felt the need to let my heart lead my brush a little more than my brain. As an artist, who is continually and emotionally connected to the undercurrents of the world, I need to let the emotion flow onto the canvas. The gift of being born with the need to create Art on a daily basis, is the gift of therapeutic output, because Art is my therapy, my solace, my way of processing Life. In it’s purest form; Art is the conduit for realizing truths about the world, life, and oneself.

Over the past two decades paintings made by Victoria BC born, Canadian Pop Art painter, Brandy Saturley have been exhibited across Canada, in London, England and online with virtual galleries in Berlin, Germany as well as corporate venues such as Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

#ICONICCANUCK – is a hashtag that Saturley coined on Twitter in 2013 to describe her distinct style of Canadian Art. The hashtag became the title of the artists’ first public gallery exhibition, taking place in Edmonton at the end of 2013. Since then, #ICONICCANUCK not only references the paintings of Saturley that comment on pan-Canadian identity, it has become the painter’s persona, quickly becoming the alter ego of Saturley, as the artist develops her own iconography, as a contemporary visual artist in Canada.

More about Brandy Saturley.

January 29, 2021

Canadian Artists Painting Mountains

Canadian Art, Collaboration

Two Canadian artists painting mountains on the Continental Divide.

How do two Canadian artists painting mountains, in different provinces, come together to collaborate on paintings that separate their practices?

Snow Dome, acrylic on canvas, Brandy Saturley and Gisa Mayer

In early 2017, my “Canadianisms” began their solo exhibition tour across Alberta, and as part of promoting the tour and getting to know the arts community of Alberta, I attended the CARFAC AGM in Edmonton at CARFAC Alberta. Previously, Visual Arts Alberta, it was where my first solo show of paintings inspired by Canadian culture and hockey were exhibited under the title, #ICONICCANUCK in 2014. At this AGM I met a painter by the name of Gisa Mayer, a landscape painter from Calgary, by way of the Bavarian Alps, where the painter spent her early years.

Over that year, Mayer and I began to develop a connection and friendship, inspired by our shared love of the outdoors, hiking and the iconic mountains of the Rocky Mountain range. By the end of 2017 we had decided that we would begin a collaborative project, inspired by our shared loves. Inspired by famous collaborations of art history past, such as Warhol and Basquiat, Johns and Rauschenberg, and Rivera & Kahlo – this was going to be interesting as in our case we live 1059KM apart, a 13 hour drive and a ferry boat.

We began with the idea of painting mountain peaks on the continental divide, the border between BC and Alberta. Painting on rolled canvas, for ease of shipping back an fourth between provinces. Mayer, in her sweeping textured strokes and soft palette would begin with sky and foreground, then shipping the canvas to me in BC where I would take on mountains and trees. Sometimes I would begin the canvas and start with sky and mountain, each time was a new experience and each time a new challenge. With my saturated and bold palettes and pop realism aesthetic, our styles couldn’t be more different but seemed to be perfect compliments to one another.

Robson, acrylic on canvas, 2017, Brandy Saturley & Gisa Mayer

We began painting at the end of 2017 and have completed 6 canvasses to date, with a plan to begin exhibiting the work in 2020. Two female artists, one from Alberta and one BC, painting mountain forms on the great continental divide, the mountains on the Alberta/BC border. Each painting is shipped back and fourth across the border, until complete. Each painting rendered in brushstrokes from each artist. Each painting a collaborative effort and celebration of two styles, creating a new language, expressing a combined love of the Rockies. Beyond the borders of the paintings, and beyond the borders that divide two provinces that have been locked into a political battle over a pipeline. Moving us beyond the borders of our differences, and bringing us together, over art.

In honour of Group of Seven luminary, Lawren Harris, we selected a name under which to paint, now known as the Mountain Forms Collective.

UPDATE: March 2020 a virtual 3D exhibition was presented online with Kunstmatrix Berlin – Together/Divided featuring mountain paintings created by both artists as well as individual works from each artists; oeuvre. An online preview in the time of COVID-19.

Museum/Gallery? Curator inquiries?

Two Canadian Artists Painting Mountains – more about Mountain Forms Collective

The Canadian landscape has been a source of inspiration for countless artists over the years, with its majestic mountains, serene lakes, and sweeping prairies offering endless possibilities for creative expression. Two Canadian artists who have captured the beauty of the country’s mountains in their paintings are Brandy Saturley and Gisa Mayer.

Saturley is a contemporary Canadian artist known for her bold and colorful paintings, often depicting iconic Canadian landscapes and cultural motifs. Her series of mountain paintings, which she created while visiting Banff, Alberta, are a testament to her love of the natural beauty of the region. Saturley’s paintings feature vibrant colors and bold brushstrokes, giving her mountain landscapes a dynamic and energetic feel. Her use of light and shadow creates a sense of depth and perspective, drawing the viewer into the scene and making them feel as though they are standing in the midst of the mountains.

Mount Temple, 36×48 acrylic on canvas, 2011, Brandy Saturley

Gisa Mayer is another Canadian artist who has captured the majesty of the country’s mountains in her paintings. Mayer’s work is characterized by its rich colors and textures, with her mountain landscapes featuring sweeping brushstrokes and layers of thick paint. She uses a variety of techniques to create a sense of movement and energy in her paintings, giving them a dynamic and almost sculptural quality. Mayer’s mountain paintings are often large in scale, adding to their grandeur and sense of awe-inspiring majesty.

Looking Out, acrylic on canvas, 2023, Gisa Mayer

Both Saturley and Mayer’s mountain paintings are a celebration of Canada’s natural beauty and a testament to the power of art to capture and convey the essence of a place. Through their use of color, brushstrokes, and composition, these artists have created a sense of awe and wonder in their mountain landscapes, inviting viewers to experience the grandeur and majesty of Canada’s mountains in a new and profound way.

In conclusion, Brandy Saturley and Gisa Mayer are two Canadian artists who have captured the beauty and grandeur of the country’s mountains in their paintings. Through their use of color, brushstrokes, and composition, they have created works of art that convey the essence of these majestic landscapes, inviting viewers to experience the awe-inspiring power of Canada’s mountains in a new and profound way.

Mt. Temple, acrylic on canvas, Brandy Saturley and Gisa Mayer

Brandy Saturley is an award-winning painter, photographer, and writer born and living on Vancouver Island. Her widely exhibited “Canadianisms” series, with it’s ‘pop realism’ aesthetic, have garnered the Canadian artist notoriety as the Voice of Canadian Pop Art. Exhibitions in unique corporate venues include; Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, TELUS Convention Centre at Glenbow Museum, Canadian Tire, Canadian Olympic Committee headquarters and on LED billboards in Times Square, NYC. Saturley has contributed articles to ArtInCanada.com, ArtistsInCanada.com, Reader’s Digest Our Canada. Her work was shortlisted for the Olympic Trophy in Sport & Art in 2014. Solo public gallery exhibitions include Gallery @501 Strathcona County and Okotoks Art Gallery. Brandy is an active arts advocate serving as public art juror (City of Saanich), professional development speaker and member of CARFAC Alberta.

Gisa Mayer is a painter born in the Bavarian Alps, known for her fluid brushstrokes creating sweeping mountainscapes. Her post graduate experience includes training in Painting, Art History and a degree in Romance Languages. Her work experience includes the Carolino Augusteum Museum in Salzburg and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. After working and teaching for many years in Salzburg, she made Calgary her permanent home in 1997, after falling in love with the Rockies. Mayer is represented by Bugera Matheson in Edmonton and Ruberto Ostberg in Calgary. Gisa is an active arts advocate in the Alberta arts community and has served on the board of CARFAC Alberta and is a member of the Leighton Arts Centre. Collected by private and public clients internationally.

January 6, 2021

Final Thoughts for 2020

Art Career, The Year in Art

Five Words and Final Thoughts For 2020 – From Fear to Release

As images of the year that was, fly across screens I am reminded that my screen time is down 42% over the previous week, this makes me smile. This year has been unlike any I have experienced in my time on Earth, but isn’t this true for any year we are alive? My biggest realization this year is that FEAR, is at an all time high and FEAR produces two reactions in most humans. It always makes me think of the novel Dune by Frank Herbert, though I never read the book, I did watch the film by David Lynch which has been re-made this year by Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Fear is not a bad thing, it is a motivator, until it is not, and we freeze, then fear is a very bad thing. Fear keeps us from getting killed in dangerous situations. Cowards (like me) have a knack for survival. But, like the hero from “Dune,’ sometimes we have to overcome our fear when there is something more important to worry about, like your health. Part of health for me is making Art, and talking with people that have positive outlooks on life. I suppose this is why I enjoy the perspective of those that have spent more time on Earth than I, the stoic ones.

So how about a year in review post, here’s what I did, etc.? How about a poem that marks the year? a funny anecdote, a comedic commentary, not for this year, for this year I am focusing on how I made it through, using five words.

PAINT: it is both a privilege and an honour to make Art, every day. It is my work, but also my therapy. Painting gives me the ability to focus my thoughts and process them in a beautiful and lasting way, not unlike writing. My therapy is also my gift back to the world, that I hope touches another human, in some way.

PHOTOGRAPHY: before and after creating a new work of art on canvas or wood, I take photographs. This year there were fewer opportunities for trips afar, so focused on my backyard and community that surrounds. This year I was moved by my hometown in ways I have not been in a very long time.

WALK: long walks in nature, down rocky beaches, through rainforest trails, and up mountainsides give me more than I could ever return. It’s free therapy and a reminder that whatever it is the weighs on us, can be lifted greatly in a short conversation with that which does not speak words, only sounds and smells.

BIKE: this year like many I invested in a good bicycle, allowing for longer excursions exploring nature, investigating areas which feet and automobiles cannot take us.

RELEASE: survivor guilt occurs when people who lose families, friends, or neighbors in disasters themselves remain untouched or, at least, alive. My survivor guilt is figurative. First-generation college students, for example, often feel torn by conflicting emotions about their success in school. They want to do well (and their families want them to also), but the students themselves feel guilty that they are getting opportunities that their parents or siblings did not. To “protect” their family members, they may engage in self-destructive behaviors that ensure they won’t make it in school. Logic would dictate that the family truly wants the student to succeed (and thus bring honor to the family), but this logic is lost on the student. The power comes in releasing yourself from the guilt, and I work hard to remind myself every single day that I deserve this career and all the things I have worked so hard on achieving, personally and professionally.

For most of the year I have remained silent in light of all the struggling that surrounds me, and I have experienced a range of emotions this year, just like everyone else. This year has been hard for ALL, but it really wasn’t that hard, in fact it ‘is what it is’ only the change came so rapidly that it upset us from our comfortable rhythms. What’s that quote, ‘Man plans and good laughs’ or in my mind, it is nature that is laughing at us.

Ultimately, when I look back at 2020 I feel immense gratitude. On the Art side I bobbed, weaved, and hustled and came out having a good productive, year. I painted the shit out of this year, loved hard, peeling back my vulnerability to it’s core. I laughed, cried, danced and fell off my bike (true story). I drank too much, ate too much, and gave more than I had in me to those that needed it more than me. And then the monoliths began appearing.

You have seen that film, ‘A Beautiful Life’ ? It’s pretty fucking grand, isn’t it? Imagine if everything was perfect, pretty, and fair all the time? Boring.

I love you all! Thanks for reading. Shine on.

Cheers to 2021 – another year playing the game of LIFE.

Sincerely Yours,

Brandy Saturley

December 31, 2020

Best Paintings 2020

Canadian Pop Art, The Year in Art

Best Paintings of 2020 – My Top Nine in Art

Every year comes with review. In this year filled with quarantines, masks, and limited travel; my best paintings of 2020 reflect the times. In total, I made 26 new paintings this year, a pretty prolific year in visual art. A typical year finds me on the road every few months. My year usually comes with time to explore new landscapes, take in Art Fairs and Shows in North America, and an annual vacation to a relaxing destination to rejuvenate my perspective. This year was a very different year, and it came with much more time concentrating on studio work and work on my website. as well as cataloguing and photography of Art.

From portraits of Canadians to prairie landscapes, from self-portraits to figurative and symbolic works, here are my are my top nine paintings created in 2020. Acrylic paintings on canvas ranging from large scale works at 3×4 feet, right down to smaller works of 14 inches. My top nine artworks begin small in size, but not in detail.

9. Sunday Sailboats

8. Long and Winding Road

7. Stitched in Canada

6. Contemplating Romance

5. Please Stand By

4. Golden Souls of Salt & Wheat

3. The Barn

2. West Coast Solitudes

1. Spirit of Remembrance

My top nine Canadian paintings in 2020, they are a mixture of all themes I have been creating for the past decade. Rendering my distinctive ICONOGRAPHY of Canada, on canvas. Distinctive Canadian pop art style paintings, with vivid and saturated palettes. The paintings sometimes vibrate with their complimentary and contrasting palettes. Using Kroma and Golden acrylics, and Rosemary handmade paintbrushes. You can see more of the paintings created in 2020 here. Along with more paintings from the past decade.

Sincerely Yours,

Brandy Saturley

December 28, 2020

Benefits of Living with Art

Art Benefits

The benefits of living with Art, equal that of taking a restful vacation.

Living with Art comes with many health benefits, a daily journey to any otherworldly destination, a reprieve from the current pressures of life and the world.

In a report for The Telegraph newspaper, an article about an experiment conducted by a professor, in neuroaesthetics at University College London. In this experiment the researcher explains, “We wanted to see what happens in the brain when you look at beautiful paintings.” The experiment concluded when you look at art “whether it is a landscape, a still life, an abstract or a portrait – there is strong activity in that part of the brain related to pleasure.”

The blood flow increased for a beautiful painting just as it increases when you look at somebody you love. It tells us art induces a feel good sensation direct to the brain.

– Professor in neuroaesthetics at UC London

I can attest, being surrounded by Art is the most wonderful feeling. I like to pause and look at the art around me when I take a break from my daily routine, and it does offer a moment of escape, it energizes me as much as a hike down the beach, walk in the trees, or bike tour. It transports me to another place and time. Art appreciation should be mandatory in all school programming in Canada.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home. – Twyla Tharp

But does original art hanging on your wall produce vibrational energies which heal? Does your brain process Art and create a feeling as if you had been on a two-week vacation?

Art accesses some of the most advanced processes of human intuitive analysis and expressivity and a key form of aesthetic appreciation is through embodied cognition, the ability to project oneself as an agent in the depicted scene,
– Christopher Tyler, director of the Smith-Kettlewell Brain Imaging Center

Like the Himalayan Salt lamps that have become increasingly popular, along with the practice of yoga and meditation; art does increase cognition, relaxation, and produces beneficial impulses from sensory neurons. As an artist who produces Art daily and in vast quantities, for myself Art is a continual process of healing and renewal, it is the deepest self discovery one can take, and in viewing an artists work, you are also taken on this journey and may even experience that which the artist experienced in creating the work.

The pace of COVID life can grind you into dust, and our ever-growing isolation and reliance on digital devices granting us greater access, at the same time can leave us frazzled and confused, left in a barren wasteland without emotion. Access to original art that exposes us to alternate realities, that inspires and deepens our insight and engages our heart and brain in playful or deep exploration, can be a daily source of enrichment, inspiration, pause, and a potent dose of protection against the stresses of modern life.

As an Artist, Art continuously renews my life and has served as a healing modality for dealing with life’s hiccups. Producing Art during the toughest times in my life, has healed my wounds. Art heals ALL wounds. Music being the most universal and easily understood form of healing in the Arts; visual art whether it be a painting, sculpture, or photograph has the same ability to heal and inspire renewal and good health.

Cheers to Art, let the healing begin!

December 16, 2020