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Juried art show comes to Longhouse Gallery
Thursday, July 19th, 2007 by GetawayBC.com
In art, inspiration comes from many places.
For Cheryl Roller, it was a recent trip to Central America where she was overwhelmed by the beauty of the people and the colours-from the striped blankets and colourful ponchos to the faces and a landscape shaped by tectonic forces.
For Gerald Stanick, inspiration is found in the interplay of music and art-the first a field where he’s earned distinction for most of his life, the second a pursuit that was once a hobby, and is now a growing passion.
Both Stanick and Roller-who live in Richmond-are among the 45 artists whose works have been selected for Oil & Water, the South Delta Artists Guild’s biggest show of the year, opening July 26. It is a juried exhibition of some of the region’s most accomplished artists.
Roller’s contribution is a pastel work titled “The Avacado Lady”-a woman she encountered in Antigua in January, on an organized tour with 18 other artists.
“She was sitting in a doorway,” Roller says, adding that many people she met were camera-shy.
“Her face had so much character in it, that I asked if I could pay her to take her picture.”
The woman agreed, even placing the basket of avacados on her head.
By the trip’s end, Roller had 800 photographs to inspire future paintings, and an unforgettable experience that included culture, the companionship of fellow artists, and some education from two art instructors who were part of the trip.
“It was a perfect mix of travelling, sightseeing, art-and shopping,” she says with a laugh.
Music heard in visual terms
Gerald Stanick’s three works in Oil & Water include two nautical scenes in oil, and a charcoal life drawing.
Unlike many artists, who come to the craft later in life, Stanick has carried a sketch pad at his side for most of his 73 years.
Though it’s only since he retired from his role as a music instructor at UBC 10 years ago that art has become his primary focus.
Stanick’s name is well-known in classical music circles. He met his wife, Mary, when they were both playing viola in the Winnipeg Symphony almost 50 years ago, and he went on to perform with the Fine Arts Quartet-one of the most renowned chamber groups in the world.
“It’s interesting how the arts intertwine so easily,” Stanick says, of music and the visual medium. “I think there’s a deep emotional involvement-or should be-with both of them.”
He cites Impressionist art-exemplified in the work of painters like Claude Monet, Camillle Pissarro and Edgar Degas-and its “light, flamboyant” qualities, comparing it to the “Impressionists” of music-composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, whose works are characterized by a similarly colouristic effect.
“When I talk about music, I talk about the need for colour and light,” Stanick says. “I find I use artistic forms quite frequently with my teaching.”
Though music consumed much of his career, he says his life is now more in tune than ever.
“This is my first love, really, drawing and painting,” he says, “I just got back to it. It’s just marvellous.”
Oil & Water debuts with an opening reception Thursday, July 26, 6:30-9:30 p.m. at the Tsawwassen Longhouse Gallery, 1710 56th St. Artists will be in attendance. Show runs to Aug. 25.