Maybe the winter has been balmy in comparison to what Alberta is usually like, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something to make it seem even more tropical.
You could take in the Perron Street location of the VASA Studios and Gallery, for instance. The slippery streets and sidewalks leave much to be desired, but take one step inside and you feel like you’re transported to a sunny beach somewhere. In fact, the perfect vantage point is to stand with your back to the door to block out the bleak view behind you, so that all you see in front of you are beautiful green palm trees.
Palms on Perron is a bit of a break from the Visual Arts Studio Association’s usual January fare. It was inspired by an idea from resident artist Diane Way who took a trip to Mexico just before Christmas.
“She had all of these photos of palm trees,” said Miles Constable, “and she said, ‘Hey! Why don’t we do a group show on palms?’ so that everybody – after Christmas – has a bit of an uplift.”
It’s a great idea that makes for a very warm theme. Way and Constable – along with other residents Frank van Veen, Pat Wagensveld, Bruce Allen and Bruce Thompson – took up the gauntlet and ran with it. Each of them was provided a copy of one of Way’s photos and they each went their separate artistic ways with it.
“Although Diane supplied us with the photo, not all of us followed the instructions to the letter,” he added, with a laugh. “I think only a few of us followed the instructions at all!”
Way has a watercolour called Nuts About Palm Trees, an upward look along the trunk toward the top where the great green coconuts are still ripening and waiting to fall. You’ll find that painting in the right display window so you’ll have to manage being outside in order to observe.
In the left window, van Veen offers his perspective on the same picture, this time in a kaleidoscope of near primary colours. It looks like a Technicolor spider web and I can only imagine that it was as much a feat of engineering and planning as it was of brushstrokes.
He said that it all depended on adhesives.
“It took me a long time, but that’s because of the tape,” he admitted. “It took me longer to put the tape on than to put the paint on, and then I had to strip the tape off, hoping that I got all the tape. Some of the fronds actually are the colour of painter’s tape.”
The result is as stunning as Bruce Allen’s large oil and acrylic painting that you can’t help but stare at as you enter the gallery. His palm tree looks like anemones with their waving tendrils. Inside, you’ll also be treated to van Veen’s other abstract non-objective works, Wagensveld’s pure abstracts, and Thompson’s diversion or variation on the theme, a beautiful castle in Mexico he titled Nossa Senhora do Carmo.
Constable also had a little fun with one work featuring real palms. The palms of his hands, to be exact. He cut out the silhouettes of his hand with the fingers playing the parts of the fronds. Texture compound creates an appropriate illusion of beach sand.
To heighten the tropical effect for the show, Constable and van Veen joked about turning the thermostat up, serving Mai Tais and spreading some bags of sand on the ground too.
Preview
Palms on Perron<br />Featuring art works by Bruce Allen, Bruce Thompson, Frank van Veen, Miles Constable, Diane Way and Pat Wagensveld<br />Running until Saturday, Jan. 28 at<br />VASA Studios and Gallery<br />11 Perron Street<br />Phone 780-460-5993 or visit www.vasa.ca for more information.
