Three generations of artists

Intergenerational women’s art is the focus of The Old School House arts centre’s current exhibit Women on the Loose II: Three Generations.

“They are all wonderful women whose work, in many cases, delves into their travels around the world,” said Corinne James arts co-ordinator at the Qualicum Beach gallery house. “Nana Cook was a resident artist here who’s exhibiting with her mother and daughter in the Dorothy Francis Gallery.”

In the Brown Gallery the mother/daughter acrylics of Charmaine Malet-Veale and Tammy Wallace are on display.

“When we were getting ready for this show we found out how much alike our paintings are. There’s a commonality of colour,” said mom Malet-Veale, a 72-year-old federal government worker now living in Vancouver and a member of the Canadian Federation of Artists.

She said her own interest in painting took on a keener sense of urgency after a trip to France in 1994, somewhere she returns regularly to re-charge her artistic battery.

“Right now I feel a little empty like it’s all over there hanging out,” she said. “It seems to fit with me and my my paintings that involve memories, people living their lives and what we leave behind ... it’s constantly evolving. The biggest surprise is usually me.

“I would say they are realistic but the more I paint, the looser I become with it. It’s always something I love or that effects me.”

Both women acknowledge the loneliness that sometimes accompanies creative output and seemed genuinely glad for the mutual support they are able to offer one another with photos of their unfinished work sometimes exchanged by e-mail for comment and near daily long distance calls made to check in on one another’s progress.

Wallace too became inspired to branch out from folk art to acrylic painting after accompanying her mom to France for an extended stay in a 600 year old farm house near the Mediterranean.

Dominant themes for Wallace, a self taught artist, include nature and animals with subject matter in the exhibit ranging from birch trees in PEI to studies of her adored border collie Sophie and domestic farm scenes from childhood.

“Through a number of generations there’s always been an awareness I’ve had of this family’s creativity,” said Wallace who counts among her favorite artists French impressionist Camille Pissarro.

She said what’ satisfying to her is art that provokes deeper thought on the subject and the artist’s intentions.

“I used to do teapots on tables but now things seems to be changing into more dramatic and edgy looking stuff,” said Wallace, a recently arrived resident of Qualicum Beach.

Also exhibiting in the show, that runs to December 5, is Nana Cook from Nanoose Bay with her paintings of the American Southwest alongside works from her mother Charlotte Madison and her daughter Morgan A. Cook. Rounding out the show in the Volunteer Gallery is acrylic and mixed media works from Fay St. Marie.

reporter@pqbnews.com

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