A Thriving Arts and Cultural Community BOLD, BEAUTIFUL, RED ART LYNN HARNISH AND GAIL JOHNSON
AQUAMARIS ART GALLERY Cowichan Valley artist Lynn Harnish started her artistic journey on the prairies in central Canada. Focusing on Interior Design which spanned 25 years of her career, Lynn and her family moved to Vancouver Island in mid 1990’s, where she gradually transitioned into expressing her creativity through visual arts and the language of abstraction. Having worked in acrylic for several years, in 2012 Lynn discovered encaustic painting
and fell in love with this ancient medium and the way it allowed her to create works of art with remarkable sense of depth. “What is it about carving into the wax and revealing previous layers that means so much to me?” - Lynn asks upon reflecting on her work. “It’s an emotional process… I allow my mind to wander into the realm of trust with thoughts of personal journeys. As beautiful as life is, at times it can challenge us with uneasiness and pain. Like shards of broken glass, we have to put the fragments back together and find happiness and peace again. It’s within those fractures that we find the beauty.”
The Quiet Is So Loud, Cold Wax Mixed Media on Paper, Framed dimensions 16” x 20” by Lynn Harnish
Lynn’s willingness to embrace inherent unpredictability of the encaustic process, which is as labour intensive as it is meditative and intuitive, opened her up to brave explorations of whole new realms of expression. The result of her natural progression towards the use of cold wax and oil paints is Lynn’s brand new body of work, encompassing mixed media paintings presented behind glass with crisp matting and contemporary black frame.
Abundance Around Us, Acrylic on Canvas, 30” x 40” by Gail Johnson
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Expressed through saturated colour, beautiful pops of red, bold shapes, interlaced layers and markings that reveal what lies beneath, these visually striking paintings present
as the perfect amalgam of minimalism and exuberance. Exuberance and joy emanate from the newest poppies painting “Abundance Around Us” by the Vancouver Island artist Gail Johnson. Rooted in storied and grounding experiences, Gail’s playful, colour-saturated and richly textured style makes her expressive depictions of this timeless subject matter much loved and sought after by collectors worldwide. Aquamaris Art Gallery Upstairs in the historic Duncan Garage Building Suite 202 - 330 Duncan Street (250) 597-2798 aquamarisartgallery.com
