Beyond the Group of Seven

Beyond the Group of Seven: Reimagining Canadian Iconography

When we think of Canadian art, the first images that often come to mind are sweeping wilderness landscapes – windswept pines, rocky shorelines, and snow-covered peaks – painted nearly a century ago by the Group of Seven.

Also sometimes known as the Algonquin School, the Group of Seven was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Frank Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley . Later, A. J. Casson was invited to join in 1926, Edwin Holgate became a member in 1930, and LeMoine FitzGerald joined in 1932. Two artists commonly associated with the group are Tom Thomson and Emily Carr.

Their work defined a national visual identity at a time when Canada was still shaping its cultural voice. But what does Canadian iconography look like today?

Three Sisters, Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 48 x 1.5 in, 2024 Brandy Saturley

As a contemporary Canadian artist, I’ve long wrestled with this question. My practice has taken me across this country – from the remote reaches of the Northwest Territories to the coastal charm of Newfoundland – and with every province and territory, I’ve found new stories, symbols, and subtleties that challenge the traditional, postcard-ready view of Canada.

Rocky Mountains Higher, Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 x 1.5 in, 2017 Brandy Saturley

Yes, our landscapes are still powerful, but Canadian identity is no longer bound to pristine nature. It lives in roadside diners, hockey rinks, plaid shirts, protest signs, denim jackets pinned with poppies, and the layered histories of our cities and small towns. It’s in the music of The Tragically Hip, the quiet endurance of the everyman, and the vibrant resurgence of Indigenous visual language.

Hearts On Our Sleeves, Acrylic On Canvas, 40 x 30 x 1.5 in, 2017, Brandy Saturley

In my work, I often revisit symbols like the maple leaf, the beaver, or the canoe – not to replicate them, but to reframe them through a modern lens. Sometimes I juxtapose these icons with pop culture references, or place them in surreal, unexpected settings. I’m interested in how familiarity can invite deeper reflection when viewed from a new angle.

Peace, Love, Canada, 2023, Acrylic and gouache on canvas, 30 x 40 x 1.5 in, 2023, Brandy Saturley

Reimagining Canadian iconography is about more than updating old motifs. It’s about listening to voices that were left out of the original canon. It’s about including urban stories, immigrant experiences, queer narratives, and Indigenous perspectives – not as sidebars, but as central to the ongoing story of this country.

Imagine Canoe, Acrylic and gouache, 48 x 60 x 1.5 in, 2022, Brandy Saturley

The Group of Seven gave us a foundation. They helped establish a sense of place. But it’s time we build on that legacy with a richer, more inclusive visual language – one that reflects who we are now and where we’re going.

Ride My Wake, Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 x 1.5 in, 2014, Brandy Saturley

I believe Canadian art today is about complexity. It’s about contradictions, conversations, and connections. And maybe that’s our most iconic trait of all. See more of my paintings here.

Let Your Backbone Rise, Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 x 1.5 in, 2016, Brandy Saturley

May 28, 2025

New Floral Paintings

New Paintings

Beautiful Spring: New Floral Paintings Inspired by the City of Blooms

Every spring, I find myself eagerly stepping outside to explore the neighbourhoods of Greater Victoria, British Columbia. After all, we are known as the City of Gardens, and by April and May, it truly lives up to its name. The streets come alive with colour – cherry blossoms, magnolias, tulips, camellias, and rhododendrons bloom in full glory, turning even the most ordinary walk into a visual feast.

Over the years, my reference library has grown with hundreds of photos from these seasonal wanderings, yet until now, I hadn’t spent much time translating these natural wonders onto canvas. This year feels different. I’ve felt a strong pull toward exploring still life through the lens of the floral – both as a celebration of nature and as a challenge in composition, colour, and emotion.

Among my top five painters of all time is Georgia O’Keeffe, whose floral works remain some of the most iconic paintings in art history. O’Keeffe didn’t paint flowers like Monet or Van Gogh – her approach was distinctly modern, bold, and intimate. Her close-up compositions and soft, sensual forms elevated the floral still life beyond mere decoration, imbuing it with emotion, mystery, and even provocation. It’s this power I’m now exploring, how flowers can suggest more than beauty; they can evoke memory, longing, femininity, and the fragility of time.

These new floral paintings are not just about documenting what I see; they’re about interpreting how these blooms make me feel. Through colour, texture, and composition, I want to honour the fleeting yet vibrant energy of spring, the way a single flower can hold the entire season in its petals.

New Floral Paintings: Introducing the First Paintings in the Series

The first few pieces in this new floral series are intimate studies that draw from both real-life reference and emotional impression. Rather than aiming for strict realism, I’m interested in capturing the essence and personality of each bloom – how it leans into the light, how its colour vibrates against the background, and how the arrangement breathes on the canvas.

Good Day Sunflower – 36×48 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2025 Brandy Saturley

A bold and joyful close-up of one of summer’s most iconic blooms, Good Day Sunflower captures the warmth and optimism sunflowers seem to radiate. Painted with a tight crop, the flower fills the frame, its golden petals reaching beyond the canvas edges as if stretching toward the sun. Set against a vibrant sky-blue background, the composition feels fresh, clean, and unapologetically cheerful.

Floating around the bloom are playful green dots, an unexpected pop art motif that adds movement and whimsy to the scene. These hovering elements suggest energy, motion, and perhaps even the carefree buzz of bees or the hum of summer itself. There’s a sense of rhythm in the repetition, evoking a lighthearted, almost musical quality.

This painting is both a celebration of nature and a nod to modern pop aesthetics. It’s about capturing the feeling of a good day, the kind where the sky is clear, the sun is high, and everything feels possible.

Hello Poppy – 36×48, acrylic on canvas, 2025, Brandy Saturley

A bold embrace of colour and contrast – a close-cropped portrait of a single, vibrant red poppy in full bloom. The petals ripple with movement and intensity, their rich crimson hue almost pulsing against a soft, vivid blue background that allows the flower to take center stage.

Adding a playful tension to the composition are scattered magenta pop art dots that hover across the background like bursts of energy or confetti. These rhythmic, graphic elements lend a sense of fun and unexpected modernity to the otherwise natural subject. The result is a striking balance between organic form and contemporary edge.

This painting captures the moment a flower demands your attention, the kind of moment that stops you mid-walk in a field or garden. Hello Poppy is an exclamation, a flirtation, and a vibrant hello to summer’s fleeting beauty.

These works are the beginning of what I hope will be a larger body of floral still life paintings. With each one, I’m discovering new ways to approach composition and emotion through this timeless subject. There’s something grounding about painting flowers – like pressing pause on the chaos of life to focus on the ephemeral, the beautiful, and the alive.

May 26, 2025

Paintings Ten Thousand and Over

Buying Art

Investing in Legacy: Original Fine Art Paintings Ten Thousand and Over

As a Canadian artist with a decades-long career dedicated to exploring the iconography, landscapes, and identity of Canada through paint, I’ve come to appreciate the significance of creating artworks that resonate on a national – and deeply personal – level. My larger-scale and most intricate works, priced at $10,000 and above, represent the pinnacle of my creative practice: original fine art paintings that are not only visual statements but long-term investments in Canadian culture.

Spirited Island, 48×48 inches, original acrylic painting on canvas, 2024, Brandy Saturley

Why Collect High-End Canadian Art?

In the world of fine art collecting, paintings at this level offer more than aesthetic appeal – they carry value in narrative, originality, and rarity. These pieces are meticulously created over months of conceptual development, field research, and studio execution. They hold within them the stories of Canada’s people and places – its humour, its contradictions, its vast and varied geography.

Collectors of high-end art are often seeking something more than décor. They’re curating a legacy. Whether displayed in private homes, corporate collections, or public galleries, these paintings make bold and meaningful contributions to cultural dialogue. They become heirlooms, milestones, and at times, touchstones of national identity.

Polar Play, 48×48 inches, original acrylic painting on canvas, 2024, Brandy Saturley

What Makes a Painting Worth $10,000 or More?

At this tier, you are not only acquiring an original painting, but a deeply considered, museum-quality artwork. These works are often:

Very large in scale, commanding presence in a room or public space.
Technically complex, involving layered techniques, hand-built surfaces, and archival-quality materials.
Rich in story, often connected to significant Canadian themes, figures, or landscapes.
Limited in availability, as only a handful of these large-format works are created each year.

The value is not solely in the canvas, it’s in the years of study, travel, and refinement that inform every brushstroke.

Monarch of the Arctic Realms, 48×48 inches, original acrylic on canvas painting, 2023, Brandy Saturley

A Canadian Voice on Canvas

Over the course of my career, I’ve painted across this vast country, from the spirit sands of Manitoba to the ice roads of the Northwest Territories. My practice is grounded in a love for Canada and an unrelenting curiosity about its people, places, and symbols. Whether inspired by pop culture, natural wonder, or personal memory, my work invites viewers to reflect on their own connections to this land.

These paintings often measuring four by four feet and larger, are the culmination of immersive residencies, cross-country journeys, and a deep, ongoing conversation with Canadian identity.

The Conversation, 48×48 inches, original acrylic and gold leaf painting, 2023, Brandy Saturley

Paintings Ten Thousand and Over: For the Discerning Collector

Original paintings in this price range are available directly through my studio, via private sale, or through select gallery partnerships. I work with individual collectors, curators, and corporate clients to place these works where they will be seen, celebrated, and preserved.

If you are a collector seeking meaningful, high-end Canadian art – whether for your personal enjoyment or as a legacy investment – I invite you to explore this tier of my work. These are not just paintings. They are cultural artifacts in the making.

Imagine Canoe, 48×60 inches, original acrylic on canvas, 2022, Brandy Saturley

Let’s Start a Conversation

If a painting has spoken to you, or if you are interested in commissioning a large-scale work that reflects your own story or connection to Canada, I welcome inquiries. Every collector’s journey is unique, and I take pride in making that experience personal, professional, and profoundly rewarding.

You can view available high-end works on my website, through my dealers across Canada, or if you are in the Victoria, Canada reach out directly for private viewings and studio visits.

Symphony of the Forest (panel 1) 59×56 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2022, Brandy Saturley

May 26, 2025

Canadian Artists Climate Change

Canadian Art

Art of the Wild: How Canadian Artists Are Responding to Climate Change in 2025

From coast to coast to coast, the wildness of Canada defines us. Our landscapes shape not only our environment but our national identity. But in 2025, the wild is under stress and Canadian artists are paying attention to climate change.

As someone who has spent the two decades travelling across this country, painting its symbols, listening to its stories, and watching the colours of our land change, I’ve come to see art as a visual barometer of what we value, fear, and hope for. Increasingly, Canadian artists are turning their eyes, and brushes toward climate change, not as an abstract global issue, but as a deeply personal, national reality.

Painting of a polar bear balancing on the peak of an iceberg, uplifted by a human hand

The Landscape Is Changing and So Is the Palette

From the haze of wildfire smoke in Yellowknife to the retreating coastlines of the Vancouver Island, the environment is speaking loudly. Artists are responding with new materials, altered tones, and shifting metaphors. For my part, the symbols I’ve long worked with rocky mountains, – polar bears, plaid, snow, and northern skies – are becoming layered with a new tension. The snow isn’t always a blanket anymore; sometimes it’s a memory. The trees stand as both guardians and ghosts.

Painting of a polar bear with a gold crown, full belly he leans against the door of a restaurant in Banff.

Polar Bears as Emblems of Urgency

In recent years, I’ve returned again and again to the figure of the polar bear. Long a symbol of strength and solitude in the Canadian North, the polar bear has also become a global icon of climate change, it’s shrinking habitat a stark reminder of what’s at stake.

My paintings of polar bears are not just portraits of wildlife; they are reflections of us. I often depict these animals in a kind of pop surrealism – floating through impossible skies, surrounded by unexpected symbols, sometimes even in juxtaposition with plaid or fragments of Canadian flags. These choices are intentional. They speak to the tension between what we idealize and what we ignore.

In one recent painting, a lone bear stands on a melting geometric ice floe, its shape borrowed from design motifs I encountered during my travels in Nunavut. The colours are bright, almost celebratory, but the meaning is anything but. These paintings ask: Can beauty wake us up before it’s too late?

Painting of a polar bear with a crown in front of geometric mountains and sitting on a an ice flow with a Inuit girl holding a bouquet of purple flowers.

Canadian Artists Climate Change: From Protest to Poetics

Not all work is overtly political. Much of it, like mine, leans toward poetic storytelling. I’ve seen paintings where lone caribou stand on oil pipeline lines painted across canvas like veins. There are photographs of thawing permafrost that blur into portraits of elders, suggesting that what we lose in the land, we also lose in culture.

Younger artists, often influenced by social media, are creating hybrid works that mash up scientific data with street art aesthetics. There’s a raw urgency to these projects a refusal to aestheticize the issue too gently.

Painting of a polar bear on top of a canoe being portaged by a family.

Indigenous Voices Leading the Way

Indigenous artists have long understood the connection between land, culture, and survival. Now, the wider art world is catching up. Artists like Christi Belcourt and Joi T. Arcand continue to remind us that climate change is also cultural change, and their work speaks to a relationship with the land that goes beyond resource extraction and into stewardship.

As a settler artist, I’m listening and learning. I think many of us are. This moment demands humility as well as expression.

Painting of a polar bear with colours shapes and light floating around his head and nose

What Comes After the Wild?

I titled this post Art of the Wild, but perhaps it’s really about art in defense of the wild. In 2025, Canadian artists are standing as visual witnesses – not only to the beauty of this country but to its fragility.

We’re making work that asks: What are we willing to lose? And what are we willing to do?

As I plan my next series, the questions I carry with me into each sketch, each brushstroke, are changing. I still want to capture Canada – but now I’m also trying to protect it, at least through the stories I paint.

Because if the wild goes silent, so do we.

Painting of polar bear floating in an aquarium, two children stand outside with hands on the glass in awe.

May 22, 2025

A Newfoundland Residency

Artist Residency

The Pouch Cove Foundation – An Artist Residency in Newfoundland

Hidden on a rural road amongst a field and across the road from a church and and a very old gravesite, is the home to a long running Newfoundland artist residency hosted by the Pouch Cove Foundation. I spent my month in the stellar company of Kim Atlin, Karen Marston, Monica Tap, Mario Cerroni, Marianne Barcellona, Wendy Robertson and Orlin Mantchev

Pouch Cove Foundation residency in Newfoundland

The residency created by James Baird in 1990 and incorporated in 1997, has hosted Artists from the world over in this small Newfoundland town by the edge of the Atlantic ocean. Spring 2025 was my second time being invited to this residency in the remote town of Pouch Cove. My first visit was in 2023 during a warm October, exchanging fall colours for Spring snow I found myself once again digging in and becoming part of the community during my one month residency.

Firstly, this place is boundless nature with the crashing waves of the Atlantic the central character. The ocean here ranges from cobalt to ultramarine, Payne’s grey and even teal. The waves roll as forms of glass and the sheer power of the waves churns the top layer creating etchings of white foam. It is a mighty place with some of the strongest winds on the coast.

With this residency I came with a plan and prepped four large paintings prior to arrival. The loose canvasses would be stapled to my studio walls to be finished during my month in residence. I also brought extra canvas and made a fifth piece informed by my time in residence and the blue Iceberg beer bottles scattered around my studio.

Studio I at the Pouch Cove Foundation

With every residency there are things to explore, experience and discover. Being my 2nd time in Pouch Cove, it was nice to lean back into the local laid back vibe and unique features of the town and the scenery. I walked every day for 6KM in between working in the studio. I got to know many who also walk the neighborhood as well as friendly locals coming out from their yards to say hello as I passed by, I found the town busier than last time I visited with more people lurking about. Stop to take a photograph and you will surely draw the attention of a passing car. They will stop and tell you where to go for good photos and how to tell what the waves will be doing by the direction of the wind. It’s a charming place with many clothing lines filled with colourful clothes and backyards with ATV vehicles.

A quintessential Newfoundland sight

Coming back to the residency feels like coming home in a way. I suppose this is what happens when you spend a month in one place, mostly cut-off from the big city except for the odd excursion by car. It can be an isolating place and I find this to be the most challenging part of the residency. The only noise here is the ocean, it’s a ‘nature’ place and we are just guests. It is a wonderful place to write, paint and take photographs. It is a wonderful place to go inward, for a little while anyway.

It is a place where 8 artists come together, each in their own studios, and make art. It is a place where you have to rely on your peers from supplies to groceries, the ones who rent cars become the group leaders. There are many opportunities to drink wine and visit studios, get feedback or just explore together. There is lots of time to work alone and away from demanding schedules. There are also opportunities to collaborate and work on similar subjects, perhaps birthing new things.

James Baird Gallery at Pouch Cove Foundation

I was sad to learn that after 35 years the residency will be coming to an end soon. It is a special place that has welcomed talented visual artists of all stripes; musicians, writers, photographers, and painters. The James Baird gallery in the residence will remain operational showing and selling international contemporary art.

Brandy Saturley at James Baird Gallery – Pouch Cove Foundation

Cheers to James Baird and everyone who has made Pouch Cove the most unique residency I have enjoyed. Looking forward to see what comes next, as I know it won’t just end here…

Brandy Saturley and James Baird at the opening of Newfoundland Impressions, April 2025

May 12, 2025

New Paintings About Newfoundland

New Paintings

Five New Paintings About Beautiful Newfoundland

The last time I was in Pouch Cove Newfoundland it was fall 2023. I was there for an artist residency at the Pouch Cove Foundation and I made three large paintings while in residence, upon returning home I went to work on 17 new paintings about Newfoundland, bringing the series to twenty paintings total.

This time I was in Pouch Cove for an early Spring residency and I spent a great deal of time continuing the series I had begun in 2023, producing 5 new paintings about Newfoundland. This time I arrived with a plan and prepped some of the canvasses before setting foot in Newfoundland. Informed by my previous residency and photographs I had on file, this time I was delving into still life and themes of hardworking Newfoundlanders and their dory boats.

Brandy Saturley in her studio at Pouch Cove Foundation, April 2025

From a bold and symbolic painting of free flying white shirts on a clothesline set against the Newfoundland flag to blue bottles on a red kitchen chair after a party, my visions of Newfoundland were continuing their bold grasp on my heart.

Here are five new paintings created during my April 2025 residency with the Pouch Cove foundation.

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful – 39″ x 51″ x 1.5″ – acrylic on canvas, 2025, Brandy Saturley

A painting of four white shirts flying in the wind on a clothesline, set against a background of the Newfoundland flag.

Hanging On A Cloud – 52″ x 25″ x 1.5″ – acrylic on canvas, 2025, Brandy Saturley

Painting of a denim shirt and a plaid shirt hanging on a pop art style cloud.

Kitchen Party – 27″ x 19″ x 1.5″ – acrylic on canvas, 2025, Brandy Saturley

Painting of blue beer bottles sitting on a red wooden kitchen chair.

Saturday – 26″ x 52″ x 1.5″ – acrylic on canvas, 2025, Brandy Saturley

Painting of nine dory boats at a dock in Newfoundland, aerial view.

About A Boat – 22″ x 38″ x 1.5″ – acrylic on canvas, 2025, Brandy Saturley

Painting of a white dory boat with a motor sitting near the docks, reflections in the ocean water.

All five paintings are now available from the James Baird Gallery in Newfoundland.

May 5, 2025

Art Opening in Newfoundland

Art Opening

Newfoundland Impressions – A Solo Exhibition by Brandy Saturley

On April 26, 2025, the solo exhibition Newfoundland Impressions opened at the James Baird Gallery in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland. Featuring twenty vibrant paintings in acrylic and oil on canvas and wood, the show brings an energetic burst of colour and storytelling to this unassuming gallery nestled on Gruchy’s Hill.

As visitors entered the space, the familiar sounds of The Beatles drifted through the air, setting a nostalgic and playful tone. The walls came alive with vivid depictions of Newfoundland’s iconic landscapes, architecture, and coastal towns—each canvas a window into a unique moment, emotion, or place.

The works were created between 2023 and 2025, following Brandy Saturley’s artist residency at this very location. Some pieces were started during her time in Pouch Cove and later completed at her studio in Victoria, BC, before being shipped back for this exhibition. The paintings capture scenes from Brigus, Bell Island, Cape Bonavista, Cape Spear, St. John’s, Petty Harbour, Cavendish, Pouch Cove, and Trinity.

Together, the collection forms a visual love letter to “The Rock” and its richly hued culture. Saturley’s expressive brushwork and thoughtful compositions reflect a deep connection to place—communicating not just what Newfoundland looks like, but how it feels.

Below are some photos from the opening. Newfoundland Impressions runs until the end of May 2025 at the James Baird Gallery in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland.

James Baird Gallery – Newfoundland Impressions, 2025 by Brandy Saturley

Solos art show by Brandy Saturley at James Baird Gallery, April 2025

Art opening at James Baird Gallery, Brandy Saturley April 2025

Art opening in Newfoundland – James Baird Gallery – Brandy Saturley, 2025

Brandy Saturley is a contemporary Canadian visual artist celebrated for her vibrant and symbolic paintings that explore Canadian identity, culture, and landscapes. Her art is characterized by a fusion of realism and abstraction, often referred to as “Canadian Pop Art” or “Pop Realism.” She is known for incorporating iconic Canadian symbols—such as hockey imagery, landscapes, and cultural figures—into her work, creating a unique visual narrative that resonates with national identity. For more information and to view her artwork, visit her official website: www.brandysaturley.com

May 5, 2025

Maui in Newfoundland

Artist Process, Artist Residency

There is a Little Maui in Newfoundland

I wear a chain around my neck with two silver islands carved in miniature: one is Vancouver Island, where I’m from, and the other is Maui, Hawaii — the island I dream of returning to again and again. These islands represent more than just geography. They embody rhythm, solitude, salt air, and the wild pull of the sea. They are lush, rugged, and soulful. And now, I may need to add a third island to this talisman around my neck: the island of Newfoundland.

Pouch Cove Newfoundland, April 2025, Brandy Saturley

This is my second visit to “The Rock,” and as I find myself in Pouch Cove, a small town perched on the edge of the North Atlantic, I feel something deeply familiar. There is a little Maui here.

Driving down into the cove, the view opens up and takes my breath away. The ocean unfolds in rich hues of ultramarine blue and teal green. The waves roll in like sheets of glass, before crashing thunderously against black volcanic rock. It’s not unlike the shoreline at Big Beach in Maui, or the legendary breaks near Jaws. The cliffside contours, the force of the surf, the raw power of nature — it all echoes the Pacific.

Of course, the temperature is different — much cooler here in Newfoundland — and the scent in the air is tinged more with salt and spruce than plumeria and coconut. But the essence is the same. There’s that sense of being on the edge of the world. Of being small in the presence of something vast and timeless. Of being surrounded by ocean, wind, and possibility.

Blackrock, Maui, Hawaii

In both Maui and Newfoundland, there is an elemental energy — one born of isolation, weather, and water. There’s a purity to it. A solitude that hums beneath the surface. A spiritual hush, broken only by the call of gulls and the crash of waves.

Hana, Maui, Hawaii – Brandy Saturley

Island life isn’t just a lifestyle — it’s a state of mind. Whether it’s in the tropics or the North Atlantic, the feeling is unmistakable when you find yourself in a place that speaks your language without using any words.

waves crashing in Newfoundland

Newfoundland has carved a space in my heart. I know I’ll be back — this place has become my third home. And soon, I’ll have three islands hanging from my neck: Vancouver Island, Maui, and now Newfoundland — each a compass point in my journey as an artist and a human.

April 23, 2025

Opening James Baird Gallery

Art Opening

Solo Art Show on the East Coast – “Newfoundland Impressions” Opening James Baird Gallery

Opening April 26, 2025, at the James Baird Gallery in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, is my latest solo exhibition—Newfoundland Impressions—a show nearly two years in the making. Featuring twenty paintings on canvas and wood panel, this body of work reflects my personal stories, experiences, and impressions of Newfoundland.

Newfoundland paintings in Brandy Saturley studio Victoria BC, 2024

My journey with Newfoundland began during a 2023 artist residency at the Pouch Cove Foundation. It marked the start of my East Coast explorations—immersing myself in the island’s unique landscapes, culture, and communities. During the residency, I began three large canvases which I later brought back to my Victoria, BC studio to complete. Back on the West Coast, I sifted through hundreds of photos, video clips, and sketches from my time in Newfoundland, using them as inspiration for new work.

Brandy Saturley in studio at Pouch Cove Foundation 2023

In 2024, I focused intensely on this series—translating these rich experiences onto canvas and wood panel using vivid acrylics and oils. By the end of the year, I had completed twenty works that captured the spirit of Newfoundland, ready to be shown together in this deeply personal exhibition.

Newfoundland paintings by Brandy Saturley at James Baird Gallery

Now, back in Pouch Cove in the lead-up to the opening, I’m seeing how these paintings truly embody the essence of my time here. From the brightly painted homes of Trinity to the historic buildings of St. John’s; from the dories and boats of Petty Harbour and Quidi Vidi to the iconic lighthouses of Cape Spear and Bonavista—each painting tells a story. There are impressions of the wild Atlantic, geologically rich coastlines, and even symbolic expressions through clothing. I’ve painted moose, icebergs, and captured the fierce, unforgettable winds of this rugged coast.

Newfoundland paintings by Brandy Saturley at James Baird Gallery, 2025

Newfoundland Impressions is my love letter to this province—an artistic celebration of its place, people, and power. In addition to the twenty works in the show, I’m continuing the series with five new paintings currently in progress in my Pouch Cove studio.

Brandy Saturley paintings in Pouch Cove Foundation studio

I’m eager to share these works with the community that inspired them, and especially curious to see how they resonate with Newfoundlanders themselves.

The show opens April 26, 2025, from 2–5 PM at the James Baird Gallery, 14 Gruchy’s Hill, Pouch Cove, Newfoundland. I’d love to see you there.

April 14, 2025

Views From The Rock

Artist Process, Artist Residency

Newfoundland is Jagged and Visceral: Views from The Rock

Newfoundland is new for me, even though I’ve been here once before. It’s a place of extremes—rapidly shifting weather, rolling ocean swells, and landscapes that feel both ancient and alive. Everything here is big. They call it “The Rock” for good reason—there is a lot of rock, and it’s impossible to ignore. These are my views from The Rock.

Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, East Coast Trail beach

In the first ten days of this artist residency, I’ve spent much of my time walking the local neighbourhood of Pouch Cove, soaking in the views from the cove and along the East Coast Trail. The wind here is something else—biting, relentless, and utterly commanding. It both drains and invigorates you. At this time of year, being outside feels like being caught in a giant blender someone keeps switching on and off. There’s no point trying to do your hair—the wind has its own ideas.

Rock and lichen in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland

On this second visit, I’m reminded again why this place is called The Rock. The geology here is incredibly diverse. From cove to cove, the textures, colours, and cuts of stone shift and morph like a visual symphony. It’s a living canvas—raw, jagged, and rich with stories.

The Rock in Pouch Cove Newfoundland

The accent and local slang—affectionately known as “Newfinese”—keep me on my toes. At times, I feel like I’ve stepped out of Canada and into a magical land somewhere between Ireland and here. Locals greet me warmly on my walks, but half the time I haven’t a clue what they’re saying. Smiling and nodding works just fine—and a cheerful “Good Morning!” still carries weight in this place of extremes.

My interest in being here is rooted in my cross-Canada adventures over the past two decades. Newfoundland and Vancouver Island may be on opposite coasts, but they share more than you might think. Both are islands—separated by water and time. Both move at their own pace, and both have cultivated a strong sense of identity, shaped by weather, sea, and isolation. We’re islanders, and with that comes pride, resilience, and a deep connection to the land and sea. Fishermen on both coasts ride the same fierce tides in different waters.

I don’t yet know what this second visit—and this deeper look into Newfoundland’s culture—will bring to my work. But I know this: I’m grateful to be here. Grateful for the chance to listen, to look, and to let this wild, visceral place work its way into my art.

April 11, 2025

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