ARTS SCENE: Art of Our Area

ART OF OUR AREA

THREE ARTISTS WHOSE DEPICTIONS OF BEAUTIFUL B.C. WILL INSPIRE YOU TO EXPLORE

STORY BY MEGAN LALONDE

ABOVE: "AUGUST MOON OVERLORD" BY BRENT LYNCH, FROM MOUNTAIN GALLERIES AT THE FAIRMONT, DEPICTS THE OVERLORD GLACIER. As a kid growing up in southwest British Columbia, Mother Nature drew Brent Lynch to Whistler long before the allure of honing his raw creativity at art school won out.

“For a long time, Whistler was a real playground for me. It was back in the ’60s and ’70s—I date myself now—but there wasn't much up there, and we were hard-core,” he recalls. “We skied, big time.”

But even when education and career became priorities, the call of the mountains remained constant. “When I went to art school, I didn’t really sign up to stay indoors all my life,” he says, over the phone from his Vancouver Island studio.

Among other gigs, Lynch worked as a graphic designer for Blackcomb Mountain back in its early days, creating promotional content—including the famed fighter-jet posters for the Saudan Couloir Ski Race Extreme—before pivoting to focus on his own artwork. Today, his impressionismmeets-realism paintings hang at Mountain Galleries in the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.

As an en plein air painter, an artist who paints “in the open air,” Lynch relies on his field sketches, memory, imagination and his familiarity with the local landscape to successfully depict recognizable landmarks through his brush strokes. Some spots lie on the valley floor—Lost Lake, for instance— while others rest a few thousand feet closer to the atmosphere, from Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge to the imposing Overlord Glacier. (Many of the same spots that now draw countless tourists through Instagram geotags.)

Experiencing a location and capturing that memory on canvas can sometimes offer a different >>

experience than an endless stream of Instagram posts, muses Benjamin McLaughlin, director of communications for Mountain Galleries.

“I think there's a bit more nuance to that approach, and it inherently allows for a bit of artistic liberty,” he says. “In my opinion, there's a level of authenticity that's hard to describe that I think you get from an original work of art, that sometimes photographs can’t capture.”

That said, McLaughlin understands why visitors and artists alike are pulled to this part of the world, and inspired to capture their own representations of B.C.’s surroundings through their preferred medium. “You have these monumental forces in the mountains and the ocean clashing together on the rugged West Coast, and I think both of those elemental forces are very humbling. They make you feel small and [evoke] a sense of gratitude for the majesty and the grandeur and the power of them that I think is inspiring, both from a sort of intrinsic standpoint as well as an artistic creative standpoint.”

Lynch prefers to think of his paintings “as dreamscapes that are kind of a springboard for your imagination,” he says. “I certainly don't want to dictate to people with my work. If (it) can be evocative, to me that’s a successful painting.”

But when it comes to our natural surroundings, he adds, “We’re living in a miracle and I don’t want people to forget that, with all the crazy stuff going on.”

ABBY COOPER

ADVENTURE-INSPIRED ART

While you’re just as likely to recognize a few favourite B.C. landmarks in Kate Zessel’s illustrations—her massive mountain-range mural adorning the walls of Whistler’s Lululemon store comes to mind—it won’t always be because you’ve hiked to that specific location yourself.

Rather than leading viewers to a particular set of coordinates, Sea to Sky-based Zessel allows her audience to choose their own adventure through her intricate, mountaininspired 2-D designs. >>

ABOVE: "MOUNT CURRIE" IS A PORTION OF A LARGE MURAL KATE ZESSEL CREATED FOR THE WHISTLER LULULEMON STORE.

LEFT: KATE ZESSEL WORKS ON HER LULULEMON MURAL.

AUDAIN ART MUSEUM 4350 Blackcomb Way 604-962-0413 audainartmuseum.com

ADELE CAMPBELL FINE ART GALLERY In the Westin Resort & Spa 604-938-0887 adelecampbell.com

ART JUNCTION GALLERY & FRAME STUDIO 1068 Millar Creek Road, Function Junction 604-938-9000 artjunction.ca

MOUNTAIN GALLERIES AT THE FAIRMONT In the Fairmont Chateau Whistler 604-935-1862 www.mountaingalleries.com

THE PLAZA GALLERIES 22-4314 Main Street 604-938-6233 plazagalleries.com

THE GALLERY AT MAURY YOUNG ARTS CENTRE 4335 Blackcomb Way 604-935-8410 artswhistler.com

SQUAMISH LIL’WAT CULTURAL CENTRE 4584 Blackcomb Way 1-866-441-SLCC (7522) slcc.ca

VINCENT MASSEY STUDIO 604-905-8363 vincentmasseypottery.com

WHISTLER CONTEMPORARY GALLERY In the Hilton Resort 604-938-3001 (main) In the Four Seasons Resort 604-935-3999 whistlerart.com paintings sculpture jewellery

canadian FINE art since 1993

visit us at the westin, whistler

ADELECAMPBELL.COM

604-938-0887

"CANADIANA" BY JOHN OGILVY, FROM THE ADELE CAMPBELL FINE ART GALLERY, DEPICTS PART OF THE SEA TO SKY HIGHWAY.

“I THINK IT'S INTERESTING TO SEE A

PAINTING THAT INCLUDES, AND AT TIMES BRINGS ATTENTION TO OUR SOCIETY'S

IMPACT ON THE LAND WE INHABIT.”

– John Ogilvy

“I try really hard not to put any sort of objective or story behind my artwork, because I want somebody else to look at it and pick out their own stories or their own experiences,” she says.

So rather than seeing an exact recreation of a Sea to Sky glacier, for example, Zessel’s Instagram followers—where she posts most of her work—might see a backpacking trip they took last summer, or their favourite backcountry cabin.

That’s probably because Zessel doesn’t typically work off field sketches, but instead enters what she calls “a meditative state” where her own memories of days spent in the mountains inform her drawings as they flow onto the page. Either way, with a body of work filled with “scenes within scenes” of mountain peaks, trees, animals, waves, cabins, foliage and more, her art undoubtedly stokes a desire to explore the great outdoors.

After all, it’s a drive for adventure that fuels Zessel’s own creativity in the first place: “My art inspires my life and my life inspires my art,” the avid backcountry skier, hiker and explorer explains.

Eight years after permanently relocating to Whistler and then Pemberton from her hometown of Vancouver, Zessel now spends much of her time working on commissioned pieces and partnerships with bigname outdoor brands.

But growing up, “My dad would put us in the car on Friday at 2:30 after we got off school every week, and we’d drive to Whistler, and as I hit the Tantalus Range (the majestic mountain range between Squamish and Whistler) my whole body would just relax,” she recalls. “I just felt like I was coming home. But then when I moved up here, I kept hearing the sentiment that Whistler was a bubble, which didn’t make sense to me because it's so big and there's so much to explore.

“I think that's what keeps me here, and what I love … there's still so many areas that I want to explore.”

B.C. artist John Ogilvy shares Zessel’s affection for travelling up the Sea to Sky highway, but rather than lacing up your hiking boots, his work might just inspire you to take a good old-fashioned road trip.

“In purely natural settings I most often feel like the view out of the front windshield with the road ahead, some traffic, maybe some buildings, is more interesting than the view out the side window where there's just pure nature,” shares Ogilvy, who is represented by Whistler’s Adele Campbell Fine Art Gallery.

“Or when standing in front of a majestic mountain or valley scene, same thing. I think it's usually more interesting if there's some evidence of human life, such as a ski run, or land developed for agriculture, or the twinkly lights of a small town or highway.

“I suppose I feel that I spend enough time in remote natural settings while working in mining exploration camps often in northern B.C. and the Yukon. So when I get out of that, I enjoy some visual interaction between raw wilderness and our subtle impacts on it.”

As such, Ogilvy’s work tends to showcase iconic manmade landmarks like the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver or the Sea to Sky highway. He’s known to exaggerate compositional elements in his brightly coloured portrayals of the South Coast’s landscape, quite literally painting its infrastructure in a new light.

But while his work might motivate you to find new lookout points near the city or book a ski trip, it’s most likely to make you think.

Ogilvy adds: “I think it's interesting to see a painting that includes, and at times brings attention to our society's impact on the land we inhabit.”

Visit Adele Campbell Fine Art Gallery or Mountain Galleries at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler or check out zesseldesigns.com. W