Combining bold, simple shapes with organic textures, Figueira pushes the abstraction of the subject while maintaining a sense of scene that is both familiar and challenging to the viewer, conveying the joy and passion found in coastal landscapes. Mountains and rock formations that move across millenia, trees shaped by decades of growth, and the split second flicker of light on fast flowing water are expressed in his works. Playing with positive and negative space, Figueira explores the energy and movement in landscapes across miniscule and massive timescales.
Join us for an Artist Demo on Thursday, August 27th, 2pm – 4pm and for the Opening Reception on Saturday, August 29th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
to Sept 27th. In The Impossibility of Beauty, Mindy Hemstalk gathers driftwood, broken ceramic fragments, and unaltered natural materials from the traditional, unceded, and ancestral territories of the shíshálh Nation, assembling them into shrine‑like forms that honour the wild intelligence of the land. These works emerge from an intense personal journey of rupture and rebirth, shaped by the realization that the dominant cultural definitions of beauty rooted in colonial and patriarchal paradoxes are impossible by design; demanding women be sovereign yet caged, expressive yet silent, sensual yet contained.
An exhibition on display in Joe’s Lounge. Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, August 29th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
Join us for the Opening Reception of our three newest exhibitions by Filipe Figueira, Solène Chatain, and Mindy Hemstalk on Saturday August 29th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
In the Main Gallery, Filipe Figueira’s exhibition In Positive Space features abstract landscapes celebrating the wild beauty, joy, and passion of the Pacific coast. In the Eve Smart Gallery, Solène Chatain’s exhibition Abandoned Hands features ceramic sculptures speaking to the complex relationships between human ingenuity, industry, technology, and the natural world. In Joe’s Lounge, Mindy Hemstalk’s mixed media sculptures honour the wild intelligence of the land, reassembling broken objects into new forms.
All three exhibitions are on display August 27th – September 20th. Join Filipe Figueira for an Artist Demo on Aug. 27th, 2pm – 4pm, and join Solène Chatain for an Artist Demo on Sept. 20th, 2pm – 3pm.
Join us for an Artist Demo with Solène Chatain on Sunday, September 20th, 2pm – 3pm. All are welcome!
Based in Powell River (qathet), Solène Chatain is a mainly self-taught ceramic sculptor focusing on handbuilding techniques including slab building and carving. Chatain has exhibited her work in several group exhibitions in Powell River (qathet) as well as on Vancouver Island. She has also taught ceramic sculpture workshops in Powell River (qathet) and in Esquimalt. Her current series, ‘Iron Age Frescoes’, explores the fusion of silica and iron, two materials essential to creation throughout human history.
Join us for an Artist Demo with Filipe Figueira on Thursday, August 27th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
Born in Portugal, raised in the UK, and now living on Cortes Island, Filipe Figueira is an abstract landscape painter whose practice is an ongoing search for a visual language that conveys the profound, physical experience of being within a landscape. Figueira is a self taught artist who began painting in 2022. He has exhibited his work on Cortes island and on Vancouver Island, as well as in group exhibitions with the Federation of Canadian Artists. Combining bold, simple shapes with organic textures, Figueira pushes the abstraction of the subject while maintaining a sense of scene that is both familiar and challenging to the viewer, conveying the joy and passion found in coastal landscapes.
Exploring what we make by hand, what we build through technology, and what we leave behind, Solène Chatain’s ceramic sculptures reflect on the complex relationships between human ingenuity, industry, technology, and the natural world. Handbuilt and carved ceramic forms are combined with discarded fragments of rusted machinery gathered from beaches, forests, and industrial sites, transforming remnants of human industry into objects of contemplation. Through these sculptures, Chatain explores the tension between holding on and letting go, between progress and consequence, between the handmade and the technological.
Join us for the Opening Reception on Sat. Aug. 29th, 2pm – 4pm; and for an Artist Demo on Sun. Sept. 20th, 2pm – 3pm. All are welcome!
Learn the essentials of bookbinding including: paper grain and folding, sewing, and forming signatures to create a basic pamphlet book suitable for journaling or art projects.
Sunday, August 23, 10:30-Noon
Gibsons Public Art Gallery
$10 to cover provided materials.
Register by emailing sunshinecoastwritersandeditors@gmail.com
By Ruth Rodgers
Saturday, August 22nd 2-4 pm, Gibsons Public Art Gallery
The Elements of Colour: Struggle to achieve the exact colour you are aiming for in your paintings? Want to learn how to design and enhance your compositions using the colour characteristics of saturation, value, and temperature? This short session will provide theory and practice in the art of mixing and using colour. Fee is $50, all materials included.
Marion Crook, Award-winning Author, interviews Artist and Author teams at the 5th Annual Art & Words Festival at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, including:
Andrea Coates, Author & Ann-Marie Brown, Artist
Isabella Mori, Author & Hilary Moses, Artist
Emily Jew, Artist & Jean Stewart, Author
Rosa Reid, Author & Erika Mastig, Artist
Joyce Gwilliam, Author & Hana Rose, Artist
Felicia Mareels, Author & Manon Staiger, Artist
Karen Webb, Author, Artist, Actor, and Educator interviews Artist and Author teams of the 5th Annual Art & Words Festival at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, including:
Elaine Seepish & Michael Healey
Robin Lamarche & Paddy Meade
David Kipling & Landyn Funk
Lynda Manson & Kathleen Vance
Joan Fletcher & Lorraine Gallant
Del Lobo & Sheri Peters
Jo Forrest & Michael Gurney
Announcing a new art workshop at the Art & Words Festival — Zentangle with Stephen Murphy, Aug. 21-23, 1 PM – 2 PM each day at Gibsons Public Art Gallery. $10 or pay what you can. Pre-register with sunshinecoastwriters@gmail.com or drop-in. All supplies included. No art experience necessary.
What’s Zentangle? It’s a doodling process that allows persons to create your own art through the doodling process. It’s a great opportunity for non artists to try something new and uncomplicated. Simply draws a frame divides it and doodles patterns inside. Very simple but it can be a starting point for someone afraid of facing the blank page.
Join us with exhibiting artist Janine Dunn on Saturday, August 8th, 2pm – 3pm. Free and all are welcome to attend!
Illustrating symbolic dimensions of celebration, abundance, and scarcity, Janine Dunn’s exhibition we mark the seasons in love features landscapes and human figures appearing in nebulous pastoral space, with a felt sense of emotion and relationship between the characters. Janine Dunn is an artist and farmer living in Gibsons, BC, who shares stories of daily life on her farm and brings forward topics resonating within the current moment through her artistic practice. She draws on personal impressions of motherhood, animal husbandry, degradation and repair, shared labour and hospitality, and isolation and solitude. Working with industrial, agricultural, and domestic materials, she collaborates with the weather and elements to develop her canvases. Dunn has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions on the Sunshine Coast and throughout Vancouver, and was commissioned to create The Landing Eye, a permanent public art installation in Gibsons Landing.
Join us for an Artist Talk with Lisa Blackwell on Saturday, August 15th, 2pm – 3pm. Free to attend and all are welcome!
Informed and inspired by the practice of observing the living world and the forces of nature, Lisa Blackwell’s exhibition Earthly Emergence features handbuilt sculptures created from clay. Lisa Blackwell grew up in Sechelt, on the unceded territory of the shíshálh Nation, and is now living on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen people in Saanich BC. Considering an Indigenous perspective is integral to her work, as an act of decolonization and reciprocity. She was taught handbuilding by Sto:lo ceramics artist and cultural caretaker, Laura Wee Láy Láq, and has been working in clay for the past thirty years. Blackwell attended Alberta University of the Arts and in 2023 earned a BFA, Majoring in Ceramics with Distinction, and also won the Board of Governors Award for top ceramics student. She has taught, sold, and exhibited her pottery in California, Alberta, and British Columbia. At the heart of everything she makes is her growing understanding of ecology in all of its complexity.
to Aug 18. Informed and inspired by the practice of observing the living world and the forces of nature, Lisa Blackwell’s exhibition Earthly Emergence features hand built sculptures created from clay. Blackwell views the biological imperative of growth and the mutual symbiotic relationships between flora, fauna, and fungi as sources of hopefulness and optimism; these primordial connections, represented by Blackwell’s biomorphic sculptures, have much to teach us about cooperation, altruism, and collaboration. An exhibition on display in the Main and Eve Smart Galleries July 23rd – August 18th.
Join us for the opening reception of this exhibition on Saturday, July 25th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
to Aug 18. An offering of confrontation, emotion, and dialogue on the seemingly inherent conflicting aspects, both internal and external, of the human persona. gsindlinger’s exhibition Untitled features mixed media pieces reflecting a fundamental process of resolution; a centralized need to complete or validate a significant emotional, psychological, or perceptive experience by creating a physical facsimile. These works represent an honest and vulnerable expression of difficult subjects, some reflecting less desirable elements of humanity and the human experience. An exhibition in Joe’s Lounge on display July 23rd – August 18th, 2026.
Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday July 25th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
Join us for the Opening Reception of our newest exhibitions on Saturday, July 25th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
In the Main and Eve Smart Galleries, Janine Dunn’s exhibition let us mark the seasons in love features paintings illustrating the symbolic dimensions of celebration, abundance, and scarcity. Lisa Blackwell’s exhibition Earthly Emergence features ceramic sculptures informed and inspired by the practice of observing the living world and the forces of nature. In Joe’s Lounge, gsindlinger’s mixed media pieces are an offering of confrontation, emotion, and dialogue on the seemingly inherent conflicting aspects, both internal and external, of the human persona.
Join us for a live, in-store demo of OLO™ alcohol markers, featuring a special remote guest appearance from OLO representative Lori Craig via Youtube.
Learn how OLO’s 256-color system actually works and never guess your way through choosing a colour palette again. Every attendee gets 3 markers, a take-home color chart, and 10% off any OLO purchase that day.
Registration required. Space is limited!
Join local artist Patricia Sparks for a live in-store demo with Piñata Alcohol Ink — the wildly saturated, fast-drying ink that’s a favorite for resin art, faux stained glass, and painting on just about any hard, non-porous surface.
Registration required. Space is limited.
