www.markpenneygallery.com

PRESS RELEASE

Fish, Ships, & Lost Treasures
Art Exhibition
March 6 – 16th, 2010

From Saturday, March 6th to Tuesday, March 16th, the Mark Penney Gallery in Ucluelet welcomes the whales with the Art Exhibition Fish, Ships, & Lost Art Treasures.
The gallery, located in Whiskey Landing, is “a place you discover by accident,” says owner, Mark Penney. “The gallery, like Ucluelet, is a real hidden gem.”
A gem of an art exhibition it will be with world renowned artists such as Canadian icon and National Gallery artist, Ken Kirkby, who was the first artist to have an unveiling in the House of Commons, Physicist and painter Rob Elphinstone, Charles Churchill Villiers and well known local artist, Marla Thirsk, are just a few of the acclaimed artists releasing new work.
Many know Marla’s work from her local mural work on the West Coast and as the creator of the ‘Art in the Gardens’ festival held each September at the Tofino Botanical Gardens, not to mention being a driving force behind ‘Artists-in-Action’ during the Whale Festival.
“I was really honored to be asked to showcase my new series at the Mark Penney Gallery,” says Thirsk. “This series, was inspired by old photographs from the 1930’s to 1960’s that my mother had. As my mum passed away 25 years ago, it will be quite a poignant moment for me.”
Modern artist Charles Churhill Villiers, son of famed inventor Amherst Villiers and relation to Lady Veronica Milner, regrets not being able to personally be at the show as he is beginning a gallery tour in England, “but my heart will be there.”
“The series that I will be showcasing at the gallery has not been seen before. I did the work, Mark printed it. I had the series framed, crated up and sent to England for an exhibition there, but it got lost in transit and traveled the high seas for awhile, before finally being returned to Vancouver Island, where they remained unopened and un-exhibited,” adds Villiers.
The irony of the exhibition’s name, Fish, Ships, & Lost Art Treasures, was not lost on Villiers.
“It seems appropriate,” says Charles. “I love Ucluelet and the West Coast…what a wonderful place to release my own lost treasure.”
Other artists include such famous names as Joan Larson, Peggy Burkosky, Bruce Muir, and more.
The Mark Penny Gallery will be open, 7 days per week, 10 am to 5 pm.
Free Admission. For more information, visit www.markpenneygallery.com for a full list/biography of artists, and a preview of some of the art.

“Paul should be congratulated on a book which gives an authoritative, overdue account of an extraordinary man.” ~ Lord Montigue of Beaulieu (in the forward of ‘The Man Who Supercharged Bond’, a biography of Amherst Villiers authored by Paul Kenny)

The extraordinary story of artist Charles Churchill Villiers’ father Charles Amherst Villiers has recently been published. I know Charles to be immeasurably proud of his father’s accomplishments, and of him as an artist and painter.

Amherst made a profound break from rocketry and engineering, to pursue painting; his very first portrait was of young Charles, the portrait sitting resulted in the two spending a great deal of time together and seems to have influenced Charles deeply in his identity as an artist.

Ian Flemming was a close friend and neighbor to the Villiers family. In 1962 Flemming commissioned a portrait which appeared in a limited edition of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. A young Charles’ childhood stories are credited to the formation of ‘Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang’ the children’s book, and later hollywood movie, which is undeniably based on the Villiers Family; Charles, sister Jane, their father the inventor and of course the fabled race car rebuilt as a flying car.

Amherst Villiers and his son, Charles in the restored Bently

At age 11, under his father’s guidance, Charles began painstakingly restoration of a Villiers blown Bentley, that had been given to him by Flemming. The car upon it’s completion, won the Concourse D’ Elegance at Pebble Beach, California.

Amherst Villiers began began his career in design engineering by souping up Brescia Bugattis, he went on to develop Superchargers for Bentley and Rolls Royce. He designed the Napier-Campbell Bluebird in 1927. He left the group to work on a gyroscope design and to calculate a rocket trajectory to reach Mars, by that time Bluebird had broken the land speed record.

As a professional, portrait painter, he was known to take his artwork very seriously, pursuing it with a single minded determination. He studied under portrait painter Pietro Annigoni in Florence, and later worked on restoration of renaissance masterworks in a monastery in Majorca. As an artist himself, his son Charles studied painting under him in Spain.

Amherst Villiers paintings are very highly regarded; a portrait of Ian Flemming, along with a stunning portrait of legendary race-car driver, Graham Hill, are on loan to the National Portrait Gallery of London.

I’m excited and looking forward to reading this book. It’s available online at the official website www.themanwhosuperchargedbond.com

Artist Ken Kirkby’s recently released biography, Ken Kirkby – A Painter’s Quest for Canada, has been garnering a lot of attention, a book signing in Calgary had just shy of 5000 people in attendance.
Ken says the book has sold out of the 1st printing, that it’s a best seller and that they’ve begun selling the second edition.
I had Ken bring by a few copies, he signed them here at the gallery.

A Painter’s Quest for Canada – Ken Kirkby

At this stage of my life all I wanted to do was go and live at my favourite place, a small village near a stream on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Most of all, I wanted to live an ordinary sort of life which had so far eluded me, a life where I could sleep when tired, eat when hungry, fly-fish whenever it pleased me and paint all those paintings that had become stored up in me like water behind a dam constructed by the events told in this book.”

Ken Kirkby has published a biographical account of his travels across the north, and of painting the largest canvas known; 12 foot x 153 foot long , Isumataq. Launch of the book will take place at Englishman River Gallery, in Parksville on Saturday September 12th  2009, noon ’til 4pm. I’ll extend my personal invitation to all of you.

Ken is a remarkable speaker, and a formidable painter. Ken’s works are represented here at Mark Penney Gallery, Ucluelet and at Englishman River Gallery, Parksville. The book is currently available online through it’s independent canadian publisher; Libros Libertad. I’ll be sure to bring in a few signed copies.

Peggy Burkosky works from her home studio located on Vancouver Island British Columbia, Canada where family, friends, and Westcoast beauty inspire her. Born in 1955 in Vancouver, residing in Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Subjects that move Peggy to paint are closely connected to her own life experiences, fishing with both her father and her husband.
Thirty years ago, as newlyweds in their twenties Peggy and Bob began the great and rare adventure of fishing a small boat on the rugged and starkly beautiful BC coast. They have had the privilege of being sustained by the mystery of returning salmon, an experience made richer by the bighearted and generous coastal people they work with.
In this time of changing fish management regimes they both have a passion for preserving and sharing a way of life that set ordinary people against stirring challenges. Alongside the diverse people of all races in the industry they still depend on the fish that have carried them and their children.

EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING 1973-1983:
Commercial Art Illustration and Design in Illuminated Sign Industry: Signcorp, Richmond BC; Imperial Signs, Port Coquitlam BC; Wallace Signcrafters, Vancouver BC; Sign-O-Lite Signs,Richmond, BC
Freelance illustration, architectural rendering, graphic design for private, corporate and government publications
Federation of Canadian Artists Painting Workshops, Saltspring Island BC
Zoltan Szabo Workshop, Vancouver BC
Figure Drawing, Metchosin School of Arts BC
ART INSTRUCTOR 1998 – 2005:
- Kindergarten to Grade 10 Art Program – Arrowsmith Adventist School
- Rogue’s Gallery Watercolor Workshops – children and adults, Parksville, BC
- Kamloops Arts Council Watercolor Workshop, Kamloops, BC
- Private group workshops in Oceanside Community BC
- School District 69 Mentor Program
- Individual Private Instruction
- Oceanside Arts Council – Watercolor Sessions
- The Old School House – Watercolor and Drawing, Qualicum, BC
SHOWS / AWARDS / EXHIBITING:
- 1984 – 1985 Joint Exhibition of Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolor
(England) and Federation of Canadian Artists at Frye Art Museum, Seattle USA and Canada
House Gallery in London England
- 1986: Filberg Lodge Exhibition, Comox BC (Federation of Canadian Artists “ People’s Choice ”
- 1984 – 1986: West Coast Artists Group Exhibitions in Richmond BC; Surrey BC
- 1984 – Cavalier Art Gallery, Richmond BC
- 1985: Sandcastle Art Gallery, Tsawwassen BC
- 1985 – 1986: District/Regional Juried Shows and Awards – North Vancouver BC, Tsawwassen BC, Parksville/Qualicum BC
- 1992: Work selected and presented to Lieutenant Governor David Lam at the Qualicum Beach 50th Anniversary Commemoration
- 1992 – 2003: Vancouver Island Brant Festival Art Exhibitions 1st Place, Honorable Mention and People’s Choice Awards
- 2003: Living Oceans Society Travelling Art Show/ Auction
- Other Shows: Filberg Festival, Comox BC; BC Creative Arts Show; Vancouver BC; Out of Hand Show, Victoria BC; Brown Property, Qualicum Beach BC; Milner Gardens, Qualicum Beach, BC
- Gallery 223 – Nanaimo BC
- Town of Qualicum Beach outdoor beachfront display
- Kitty Coleman Woodland Gardens Shows; “Originals Only” Show Courtenay BC
Select Exhibits:
- 2005: Solo Exhibition Old School House Gallery and Arts Centre, Qualicum Beach BC
- 2005: Milner Gardens Spring Show, Qualicum Beach BC
- 2005: Milner Gardens Art in the Garden Show, Qualicum Beach BC

MISSION STATEMENT
Through her paintings and drawings, Peggy loves to capture the rugged beauty and simplicity of a fishing lifestyle that embraces the coastal peoples and shorelines of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada.  As a fishing family for 30 years, Bob and Peggy with their children share a passion to preserve their fishing heritage. They long to raise an awareness of the increasing need to co-exist and  co-labour in mutual respect and friendship with the First Peoples and diverse peoples of this land. Through the creative means of painting, drawing and writing, they seek to uphold the moral, spiritual and political integrity required to restore and promote stewardship of the Pacific Coast and the Canada they love. They pray that all people may walk together in freedom, peace and prosperity.