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ART AND THE CITY: Vancouver

ART AND THE CITY Vancouver: Autumn Art Shows & Openings

Kroma Acrylics colours Granville Island, Vancouver BC

I’m back on the road and in beautiful Vancouver, BC! The trees are dressed in full regalia of vivid Autumn colors and it was a balmy 14 degrees and sunny today. On Granville Island I popped into Kroma acrylics, where they have been grinding their own pigments and creating supersaturated acrylic resins for over 40 years. My walk today took me to English Bay where the ocean meets Stanley Park and the vibe is active. I finally got to experience A-maze-ing Laughter a Sculpture by Yue Minjun, 2009 – part of the Vancouver Biennale public art walk. These multiple bronze men cast laughter and engage viewers of all ages. Public art I think we all can agree upon. Tomorrow I have two openings to keep me busy, until tomorrow! This is ART AND THE CITY: Vancouver.

Art and the city Vancouver

Beautiful Fazioli Piano commissioned for the Fairmont Pacific Rim, Vancouver Canada – #fightforbeauty

Day two in Vancouver began with an impromptu interview on the street with a local film crew shooting a pilot for a web series, you know you’re in Hollywood North when this happens on your way to work. Today’s exhibit destinations started at the Fairmont Pacific Rim with the #fightforbeauty exhibit featuring a mixture of high fashion, architecture, visual art and design. With iconic dresses from Alexander McQueen, Yves St. Laurent and Versace, and a commissioned Fazioli grand piano from Italy, this exhibition is as educational as it is beautiful. If you are a fashion, design or architectural fan, this exhibit will delight you. My afternoon was spent in English Bay photographing architecture and beach art in the form of numerous stacks of rocks or Inukshuk along the shore. Right now I am supposed to be at the Fall members opening at the Vancouver Art gallery, but my adventurous photo taking landed me nursing a severely sprained and swollen ankle. So I will finish this with and evening toast of wine and frozen bag of peas on ankle. Here’s to feeling better for tomorrow’s events!

Art and The City Vancouver

The new Emily Carr University of Art & Design – Vancouver Canada

Today I took my sprained ankle and wounded deer limp across town on the Skytrain, day 3 was all about the opening of the new Emily Carr University of Art & Design – opening a brand new, state-of-the-art campus and headquarters in Mount Pleasant. The new home for the university welcomed guests this weekend, and it was an interactive opening. Highlights included the learning commons, the sculpture studios and the featured exhibition. 88 Artists from 88 Years an alumni exhibition to celebrate Emily Carr University’s move to their new campus at Great Northern Way. The exhibition includes works by graduates spanning the years 1929 to 2017. Favorites included; Ken Sakurai, Atilla Richard Lukacs, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, and Laura Piasta. The new campus and its amenities include all sexes washrooms and so much more. It’s nice to see the school looking like a serious University, on the level with any other major arts institution in Canada. Well done ECUAD! Afterwards I hit the Equinox and Monte Clark galleries across the lane and also popped into the colorful space at Winsor gallery. An art filled day, time to ice the ankle, catch up with you tomorrow.

From the Royal Portrait Collection, Queen Elizabeth II – at the Vancouver Art Gallery 2017

With my sprained ankle is on the fast track, I can wiggle my toes without yelping today! On my final day in Vancouver my destination was the Vancouver Art Gallery for the Fall exhibitions. Portraits of Artists, a show from the collection of the Royal Gallery in London, Queen Elizabeth II private portrait collection. From the 1700’s onward an immense show of some of the most detailed and highly skilled classical mezzotints, etchings and paintings, an ode to the old fashioned ‘selfie’. I also enjoyed the Contemporary painting show and the Gordon Smith show, ‘Paint it Black’ – a show of work from his ‘black period’ all the canvasses with a black and brooding ground with hints of color and form. The work made me think of Monet water Lillies only the dark side. I finished the day with an Emily Carr retrospective on the top floor of the gallery, with several of her oil paintings on paper, I love the loose and pastel tones in these studies, the lighter side of Carr. A day well spent, anxious to return home and get back to painting. It’s been a good five days of stimulating the senses and enjoying the art and Fall colours in the city, back to my quiet seaside studio on the island.  ~ Artfully Yours, Brandy Saturley

SALT Magazine Feature

IN PRINT: Canadian artists SALT Magazine Feature

Originally published November 25, 2016

SALT Magazine Feature

Paintings by Brandy Saturley featured in SALT Magazine Nov. 2016

It has been quite the journey this year, exploring Canada. From the most rural to the grandest; I am cultivating a visual language that is distinctly Canadian. Most recently I visited Toronto for the Art Toronto International Contemporary Art Fair, with stops in Montreal and Ottawa. Working as a full-time professional visual artist, on remote Vancouver Island, comes with it’s challenges as I have worked to establish myself nationally and internationally. My travels of this past year help to keep me connected to the national discussion about Canadian art, and through this I have extended my reach across the country. This brings me to a print magazine my work was included in recently. Salt Magazine Fall/Winter 2016 issue – A publication produced on Vancouver Island by Page One Publishing Inc., that promotes fine living and travel on Vancouver Island. Distributed in Alberta, Vancouver, and to subscribers across Canada. The feature, ‘Island Inspired’ written by editor Carolyn Camilleri, features three Vancouver Island artists, including my ‘Canadianisms’, whose work has gained exposure beyond the island market.  Full article here. Keep on exploring and creating; vive le Canada! and bravo Vancouver Island artists! ~ Brandy Saturley
SALT Magazine Feature

Vancouver Island Artists featured in SALT Magazine

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Canadian Art Junkie Feature

Canadian Art Junkie shines a light on 150 Canadian Artists for Canada 150

Originally published June 29, 2017

A favourite Canadian Art Blog, ‘Canadian Art Junkie’ has been shining a light on Canadian Artists this year, and I am happy to be included in this iconic list of creators. Featuring a curated serving of the visual arts from Canada and around the world. With her 150 Canadian Artists for Canada150 feature, the ‘Art Junkie’ is bringing light to a diverse group of prolific artists in the Great White North, these are significant Canadian Artists you should know. “For five years Saturley sussed out the icons and settings that make us Canadian.  Her works are on exhibition in Canadianisms, at Okotoks Gallery near Calgary through Sept. 2.” – read the full article here.

Canadian Art Junkie Feature

Canadian Art Junkie – 30/150 Canadian Symbols – Brandy Saturley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spanning a decade, these Canadian pop art paintings by Canadian Visual Artist Brandy Saturley create an open dialogue of what it means to be Canadian. They are informed by our iconography, our passion, our humour, our tolerance and kindness. From public galleries in BC, Alberta and Ontario, to public and private art collections across Canada, these paintings of Victoria born painter Brandy Saturley, have garnered the artist notoriety as “The Voice of Canadian Pop Art”. Begun in 2010, the year of the Vancouver Olympic Games, with painting a goal tenders mask on the Canadian flag, Saturley began exploring the collective Canadian consciousness in her paintings. Coining the term #ICONICCANUCK, the title of the first public gallery exhibition produced by the artist. Creating a distinctive style enjoyed by Canadian art collectors worldwide. You will find polar bears, red canoes, the Canadian flag, beer, wildlife, and iconic landscapes. Distinctly Canadian Art, rendered in a pop art style with elements of realism and modernism.

More Our Canada Magazine

‘The Getaway’ – More Our Canada Magazine Cover Feature

Originally published on June 29, 2017

Last year for Canada Day I was exploring beautiful Yellowknife and soaking up all this Northern City has to offer. This year I am paying it forward with an article I wrote for More Our Canada Magazine, ‘To Yellowknife, With Love’. I found out a few weeks ago that one of my paintings inspired by this trip would be featured on the cover of the July issue, ‘The Getaway’ features a sled dog, the houseboats on back bay and a canoe adventure I enjoyed while exploring. The painting encompasses all that I experienced and feel about the trip, it speaks to freedom and living an authentic life. read the article now

More Our Canada Cover

Painting by Brandy Saturley on the cover of More Our Canada Magazine

 

 

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.
The Getaway – This piece was inspired by my time in Yellowknife, NWT in 2016. My journey through the Canadian landscape has taken me to many large cities and rural communities over the past couple of years in preparation for touring exhibitions of my paintings inspired by Canada this year, coinciding with the Canada 150 celebrations. One year ago, on Canada Day 2016, I had the opportunity to celebrate in Canada’s North, on the edge of the Arctic Circle. I spent Canada Day week in Yellowknife on an epic journey in the land where the sun and the people never sleep. The husky dog was part of a team I met during my visit, the piece speaks to the wild and independent spirit of Canada’s North. My six days on the edge of the Arctic Circle, where helping your neighbour really is the first order of business, and the only way to survive in this land of extreme weather and extreme living. This experience inspired many a painting when I returned home to my studio on Vancouver Island. These people have heart and grit and talent beyond whatever expectations I had going in.

Canada Inspires

Canada Inspires West Coast Artist – Brandy Saturley talks with the Okotoks Western Wheel

In 2017, Canada inspires West Coast artist Brandy Saturley with tour of an art exhibition inspired by her travels across Canada. The artist talks with the Okotoks Western Wheel about her exhibition; ‘Canadianisms: A Half Decade Inspired by Canada’ – at the Okotoks Art Gallery near Calgary, Alberta. The show which began 2017 in Sherwood Park, just outside of Edmonton, made it’s way across the province to a town just outside of Calgary, known as Okotoks. This travelling art show includes hand painted art shipping crates, central to the show, which carries 30 paintings, illustrating stories of Canada.

Read the full interview.

Canada Inspires

 

 

Canada inspires
These paintings tell visual stories; encompassing themes related to Canadian popular culture, symbolism, people, nature and the landscapes of Canada. Saturley’s paintings not only have a sense of humour, but also reference famous works of art. Her vibrant Canadian art collection boasts archetypal landscapes, Tim Hortons cups and Canadian icons like Gord Downie and a hockey stick-holding Shania Twain. One painting depicts a Mi’kmaq performer and RCMP officer at the Vimy Ridge 100th anniversary; another portrays a Canadian veteran poised above a field of red poppies. One piece portrays a couple standing outside the Montreal Forum, posed in the style of Grant Wood’s 1930 painting American Gothic.

Painting Portraits of Canadians

Painting Portraits of Canadians – talking to Christa Couture for CBC Arts

In 2011, I began a journey, that became a collaborative Canadian Portrait Project. It started with an experience during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, that caused me to reflect on what it means to be a Canadian. From this a series of paintings emerged, the project became known as #ICONICCANUCK. These paintings extended my connections with people, I found myself painting athletes for Canadian Tire Jumpstart in Toronto and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in Calgary. This is how I began painting portraits of Canadians.

painting portraits of Canadians

These events allowed me to interact with more people, from all corners of Canada and continue the discussion. My journey then led to a solo showing of these paintings in Edmonton in December 2013. In 2014, I launched a parallel project inspired by the conversations I was having with Canadians, the project became known as ‘The People of Canada Portrait Project’ , in which Canadians submit their best Canadian ‘selfie’ and I paint their portrait. Fast forward to 2016; the photos keep coming in and my journey across the Canadian landscape continues. This year I connected with people on the ground in Yellowknife, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Torono, Montreal and Ottawa. Through these experiences I had even more discussion and it is the people I met, in person and on-line, who set me on a deeper journey questioning, who are the People of Canada? Whether born, immigrated to, or ex-patriot, I want to know you, the People of Canada.

Painting portraits of Canadians

In November I received an email from singer, songwriter, and storyteller, Christa Couture, (Associate Producer for CBC Canada 2017) and the result is this lovely article, shining a light on the project. “Enticed by the power of portraiture, Saturley wants to explore and showcase the rich diversity of Canadians through focusing on the relationships we have. When choosing which photo submissions to turn into paintings, she asks the subjects a series of questions.” READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Brandy Saturley CBC

See more paintings by Canadian Pop Art Style painter Brandy Saturley.