Drawing from life

Drawing from Life
Dragonfly Life Drawing Group
March 22 - April 10 2024
Opening Reception Friday March 22, 5-7pm

Meeting weekly since 2021 at the Dragonfly artist supply store, the Dragonfly Life Drawing group features a wide range of talented professionals: painters, sculptors, fabric artists, illustrators, woodworkers, metalworkers, and interdisciplinary artists all sharing a passion for drawing the human body from life.The artists: Mike Deas, Bryn Finer, Georgia Henn, Martin Herbert, Jane MacKenzie, April Mackey, Patrick McCallum, Mel Williamson, Sal Wiltshire, Zoe Zafiris.

The artistic tradition of drawing the live figure has deep roots dating from the 5th century BCE, its foundation in the European academies of the late Renaissance and early Baroque era's classical art instruction. Sadly now generally absent from Contemporary art instruction, for many purists life drawing remains an integral element in an artist's mastery of drawing, painting, and most importantly: seeing.    

The exhibition will feature studies and sketches created during the live model sessions, in addition to figure-inspired finished works executed in a variety of mediums by the artists.

The elements and the Elementals

Artwork by the women of the She Said Collective
Exhibition: March 1- March 20
Reception: Friday March 1, 5-7pm

You are invited to the women of She Said Collective’s exciting eleventh art show, entitled The Elements and the Elementals. The elements encompass earth, water, wind, fire, thunder, ice, force, time, flower, shadow, light, and moon while the elementals are magical fairies who also represent nature: gnome, undine, sylph, and salamander.  

Enjoy the artists unique interpretation of the theme, utilizing paint, encaustic, mixed media, and repurposed found materials. Where will your imagination take you in this magical realm?

About She Said

In the spring of 2013 a group of women sat in a circle on the floor of Ahava Shira's studio near the top of Mount Maxwell. We relished our Sunday get togethers.These Sundays were inspirational. We learned to step out of our comfort zones, to share our voices, our stories and intimate journaling. 

As we neared the end of the gathering, Ahava asked each of us to share a dream, a wish, a desire. I stated that I would like to see my art on a wall. Each women expressed they would also love to exhibit their work.

And so it began with Pieces of Her Story, our first show.

Since 2013, we have held a yearly show except for 2021, the year of covid. We have had interactive pieces so that the public becomes part of the creation. One year some of us took to the stage with stories, films, and dancing.

Small Works

Small Works by the Gallery Members
Opening Reception: Dec 8, 4-7pm
Dec 1 to 21

It is a delight to be serving the community a buffet of small works by the members of the Salt Spring Gallery. In the darker times of the year, colour and light will await you at the gallery. You are invited meet your soul in the artist conversation with life.

These affordable works hold surprises and a rich palette of genres for all art appreciators looking for a special gift or to purely contemplate.  

The Beholders Share

The Beholders Share
Opening Reception Friday Nov 10, 5-7pm
Show is on Nov 10- 29 

The Beholders Share project is a three year endeavour to highlight biodiversity loss and global warming through visual metaphors in both 2 and 3-D textile work. Images of flora, fauna and modern technology compete for space in a collage of imagery, materials and techniques. The "Beholders Share" is an Art term that speaks to a viewers role when taking in art. We bring all of our past experiences  to the table thus personal meaning to the work . With enjoyment, bewilderment , disgust or boredom, our brains finish the work- ultimately meaning all Art is collaborative. On the canvas of our environmental crisis we also participate in terms of environmental responsibility and our collaborative or destructive relationship with nature- which we in fact,are a part of not separate from. 

The Beholders Share is an exhibit of sketches - screenprinting, wax resist dying and chalk pastel on heavy watercolour paper. These sketches serve as explorations before moving on to silk using similar techniques. 
The 3-D folded origami- like works- some in silk and some in paper will be alongside the sketches. Over the span of three years the work jumps dramatically in scale mirroring the environmental impacts now being acutely felt, globally. 

Impression 8

Impression 8
October 20 - November 8


The Salt Spring Island Printmakers Society's 8th annual show features new works by 15 SSIPS members. A variety of techniques have been used including dry point, gelli plate, wood reduction, collagraphs and lino cut. Members have also created colourful lanterns using twig frames and printed shades, and a series of mini-prints (4" x 4"). 

SSIPS started over ten years ago as a group within the SSI Painters Guild. Two years ago it became a separate society, and last year it moved into a studio space at SIMS which is now fully equipped with 4 presses plus tools and materials for most non-toxic printmaking techniques.  Workshops, school class sessions, activity days, and mentored studio time are offered to its 45 members and the public. 

For more information please check the website (www.ssiprintmakers.ca) or contact Nora Layard (nlayard@shaw.ca).

An Odd Agreement

An Odd Agreement
Nathalie St-Amant and Michael Henri Wright
Opening reception: Friday August 18, 5-7pm
Show is on August 18 - Sept 6

''An Odd Agreement’’ is a celebration of a surprising agreeable meeting in the painterly Canadian Expressionism style.


Nathalie St-Amant:
''As the night's blanket rolls in, I am cocooning in Michael's cabin on Wolf Beach, Clayoquot, surrounded by his belongings, his notes to himself keeping me company. 

In my 20’s, I lived a solitary life in Mike's cabin. Mike had been abducted by the life of fatherhood and urban lifestyle . We had briefly crossed paths before he left. The kin artist lifestyle in the wild helped us stay connected and encouraged our devotion to the artist life.

I went back every few years to retreat and paint: these month long pilgrimages helped shape my painter’s language and life, influenced by the playful and authentic work Mike would leave in the cabin."


Michael Henri Wright:
In 1974, after 10 years of service in the army and studying in Fine Arts at the University of Victoria, Michael moved into the heart of Clayoquot on Wolvesbeach, so named by the Ahousats. Here he painted earnestly over a fourty year period between school and a variety of jobs.

On this same beach, he built a 1910 era sail boat, featured in ‘’Wooden Boat’’ magazine.

Michael exhibited in Prince George, Hazleton, Victoria, and Tofino, selling to local and international collectors.

His painting genre developed from realism to expressionism, influenced by Van Gogh, Emily Carr, Richard Holgate, Turner, the Group of Seven, and many others. Michael’s painting process is spontaneous, thus allowing the accidental, a language he acquired from life on the West Coast.

Pride Celebration

Salt Spring Gallery would like to welcome the celebration of Pride goers of our lovely Island!

Bring your rainbow heart and drop by our gallery for your art fix. We offer a welcoming environment to all, and, as Salt Spring's oldest and only artist-run cooperative fine art gallery, we have the very best in fresh, local art.

Lots going on this month.

We have a new show opening on Friday July 28, reception at 5-7 pm: On the Lighter Side. A collection of paintings and whimsical sculpture by Carol James, one of our founding members. 

August 18 brings the opening reception for a phenomenal show by our own Nathalie St-Amant and Tofino artist Michael H. Wright. An Odd Agreement: two worlds meet in the wild. Not to be missed.

We are also pleased to announce two new members have joined our ranks: Shannon Wardroper and Amy Melious. 

Shannon is a textile-based artist whose love of nature is reflected in abstracted botanical imagery, motifs, and cultural references sewn, printed, and dyed into exquisite fibre sculptures, wall hangings, and installations. She has exhibited in the UK at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower show as well as the Museum of Garden History, London, and teaches fibre-based arts here on Salt Spring.

Amy is a lens-based artist who incorporates a wide range of techniques in her photographic art practice. She used a traditional darkroom for twenty years, then moved on to incorporate digital techniques into her process, as well as hand painting selected bodies of work with dry pastel, paints or encaustic.

Please join us in welcoming Shannon and Amy to the Salt Spring Gallery, a community hub for the arts since 2009.

Art by Olga Szkabarnicki

On the Lighter Side

On the Lighter Side
Exhibit by Carol James
Opening Reception Friday July 28th, 5-7pm
Show is on July 28th - August 16th

Carol James moved to Salt Spring in 2007. In 2009 she was one of the founding members of the Salt Spring Gallery of Art.

After retiring from a nursing career, Carol was able to pursue her  passionate career as an artist. Her first showing was at Syncrude’s “NextFest Art Show “ for new artists. Following this, she showed her work in Westlock’s community art shows, Harcourt House, Edmonton. She participated in  Edmonton’s 2006 Artwork, a renowned yearly festival of the arts. 

''The ideas behind my work vary with a vision for a surface, image, and/or thought. I experiment with glazes, wax finishes and mixed media. When I do something with metal, the metal has to be an important part of the composition. For example, the sheen of the metal plays well with images of ships giving the desired feel of movement on water. 

I like to add mystery and fun in a piece which gives the viewer pause to look again and again and to make the art their own."