www.markpenneygallery.com

Canadian artist and writer, Nana Cook, Lives in Nanoose Bay. Although she is known for her passion for painting the American Southwest – a land she has loved and explored since childhood, Nana is also compelled to paint the dramatic beauty surrounding her home in the Pacific northwest, and has created an extensive and provocative body of work featuring the region’s extraordinary arbutus trees.
Nana worked in the arts, for over twenty years before beginning to paint in 1997. She currently works primarily in Acrylics as the quick drying medium makes an ideal choice for her spontaneous plein air painting while traveling and it gives her the control she desires in her purposeful and precise studio work. Dramatic color, exciting perspective, humour,spirituality and thought provoking subjects dominate her work.
Nana’s first exhibit was with her mother, Southwest artist Charlotte Madison. The show held in 2003 was titled, ” women on the Loose: an exhibit of Southwest Art”, in reference to the annual mother and daughter painting trips they take to Arizona and new Mexico. in 2009″women on the Loose II: Three generations” included Nana’s Daughter, Morgan A Cook.
Since her exhibit Nana has shown her paintings in numerous exhibits in Canada, the USA, and China and her work is in the permanent collection of the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern art in China.
Nana Cook is a member of the Art gallery of Greater Victoria, the Nanaimo Art Gallery, the Old School House Arts Centre and the Mountain Artists guild in Prescott, Arizona.

Nana Cook’s website

Posts tagged Nana Cook

Gallery Representation:
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 
Victoria.
Artfitterz ,
 Nanaimo.
Mark Penney Gallery , Ucluelet
.
Nanaimo Art Gallery, 
Nanaimo.
Qualicum Frameworks Gallery , Qualicum Beach.

Showings and Exhibitions:

• 2010
 TD Art Gallery Paint-In
• 2010
 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
• Art in Fashion and Bloom – 
The Old School House Arts Centre, Qualicum Beach
• National Winter Juried Art Show
 – The Old School House Arts Centre, Qualicum Beach, B.C.
• Grand Opening Group Show – Gallery Artists 
Artfitterz, Nanaimo, B.C.
• 2009
 Women on the Loose II , Three Generations – 
The Old School House Arts Centre, Qualicum Beach, B.C.
• Sidney Fine Art Show
 – Sidney, B.C.
• 22nd Annual Moss Street Paint In  -  Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
• Summer Small Works – 
 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
• Les Fleurs au Printemps – 
The Old School House Arts Centre, Qualicum Beach, B.C.
• Cottages – 
The Old School House Arts Centre, Qualicum Beach, B.C.
• 2008 
Sidney Fine Art Show – 
Sidney, B.C.
• Sooke Fine Arts Show
 – Sooke, B.C.
• 2007
 Artfest 2007,  Originals Only
 – Nanaimo, BC
• Originals Only 2007
 – Comox, BC
• 2006 
Artsfest 2006, Nanaimo’s Originals Only – 
Nanaimo, BC
• Some Art
 – Artist Space, Nanaimo, BC
• Momentum – Contemporary Works by Chinese & Canadian Women Artists
 – Nanaimo Art Gallery, Campus Location, Nanaimo, BC
• Urban Eyes
 – Nanaimo Art Gallery/Artist Space,Nanaimo, BC
• Art Inspired by the American Southwest – 
Cook Studio Gallery, Nanoose Bay, BC
• 2004
Women’s Declaration
 – Shanghai Duolun Modern Art Museum, Shanghai, China.
• 2003
 Women on the Loose: An Exhibit of Southwest Art
Rogue’s Gallery, Parksville, BC.

Publications:

-Island Arts Magazine- Feature Artist
-Momentum – Contemporary Works by Chinese and Canadian Women Artists
-Driftwords 2005
-Women’s Declaration – Contemporary Women Artists’ Exhibition
-Travelers’ Tales Guides Grand Canyon: True Stories of Life Below the Rim
-G.B. and the Strange Canadian Painter Lady
-Delta Community Arts Council: An Illustrated Directory of Delta Artists Anniversary Edition 1969 – 1989
Associations:
Mountain Artists Guild – Prescott, Arizona
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria – Victoria, B.C.
Nanaimo Art Gallery – Nanaimo, B.C.
The Old School House Arts Centre – Qualicum Beach, B.C.

Lawren Harris’s Bylot Island I, an oil painting of a stylized arctic mountain range sold for $2.8 million The fourth-highest price ever for a Canadian painting sold at auction.

“An Arctic Lawren Harris is one of the rarest commodities in the Canadian art world,” said David Heffel, president of the Heffel auction house that kicked off spring sales of fine Canadian art.

“Most of those reside in public institutions today, so for one to turn up in a private collection and come back into the market is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for bidders.”

Bylot Island I wasn’t the only Harris artwork to break the million-dollar mark Wednesday. Arctic Sketch, an oil-on-board painted in 1930, sold for $1.521 million after the premium.

Harris’s Winter painting went for $731,250, Mountain Sketch LXX sold for $497,250 and Mount Temple, Mountain Sketch LII fetched $468,000.

Modern artist, Charles Churchill Villiers has just launched his new website: www.charlesvilliers.com.
Charles has constructed his own website and in doing so, has realized a long held goal of managing his own on-line presence.

The website, like his artwork, is more than a little avant garde. The site opens with the question “What is your most precious dream? “… it showcases recent paintings from Santa Fe, digitally created art and a cross section of past works in an astonishing variety of mediums.

One of Charles Villiers’ best assets is his ability to move freely from one medium to another without a disruption in his creative process. His work is process driven; filled with symbolism, iconography but arranged into compositions, often with a sophisticated colorists approach.

By the end of this week, Villiers should be arriving in London to make arrangements for a much anticipated showing of his recent works… in pursuit of his most precious dreams.

Kevin Drews of the westcoaster.ca interviewed Ken Kirkby regarding his recent series of paintings and his plans for raising money for Salmon Enhancement.
the original article is published here

Painting A future for Vancouver Island’s Fish-Bearing Streams

Published Date: 2010/3/19 17:27:31
Article ID : 7653
Version 1.00

Ken Kirkby shows off some of the paintings he’ll sell to raise money for the Nile Creek Enhancement Society. (Keven Drews Photo)

By Keven Drews

UCLUELET — One of Canada’s most celebrated painters has big plans to save the salmonids of eastern Vancouver Island’s fish-bearing streams.

Ken Kirkby – who unveiled a model of a massive 48.33-metre by 3.66-metre painting called Isumataq in Parliament in 1992 – plans to raise millions of dollars for the Nile Creek Enhancement Society (NCES) by selling prints based on about 40 original paintings.

Some of those paintings, part of The Fish of the Nile Creek Series, depict the creek’s salmonids and their international cousins, and are currently on display in Ucluelet’s Mark Penney Gallery.

“You asked me, why is the passion for this,” said Kirkby during a recent interview with the Westcoaster.ca. “Oh, it comes out of anger, disappointment, mystery, negatives.

“When I was first here as an 18-year-old in 1958, the sea was full of fish, and the river was full of fish, and the sea was full of kelp and everything was in great shape.”

Kirkby said he ventured to Canada’s Arctic, and when he returned to eastern Vancouver Island after the trip, the kelp beds and the fish were gone, and he became angry.

“I’m not going to let my species do this bullshit anymore,” he said.
The Nile Creek is located on the central, east coast of Vancouver Island.

Kirkby’s plan is simple but ambitious.

He’ll use the money from the sale of the about 40 original paintings – he’s already completed 16 – to raise funds for the prints.

Some of those originals are currently selling for $4,000.
Corporations and organizations will then host charity events by cutting the NCES a cheque.

Patrons will buy tickets for the charity events, during which they’ll receive a print in a lottery.

“There’s a lottery aspect to the order in which you get to select your print,” added Penney. “You know you’re going to get a print, but it’s a matter of chance, which one you get to select.”

Kirkby said he hopes to raise $4 million: $2 million during the first phase and $4 million during the second phase.

The task shouldn’t raise any eyebrows because charity and fundraising events are nothing new to the NCES.

According to media reports, the society has already pumped millions of dollars into the Nile Creek.

And in 1997, the organization won a Canadian Environment Gold Medal Award from Canadian Geographic and the federal government.

Besides, Penney said, Kirkby’s original paintings are a natural draw.
Visitors to Ucluelet are enamored by the area, he said, and want to capture something from the Island to take home.

He called Kirkby a “titan in the art world.”

Kirkby said his paintings will remain on display in the Mark Penney Gallery.

He currently resides in Bowser, B.C., which is located north of Qualicum Beach.

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.

Artist, Colin T Bell is glad to have a website of his own to showcase his work on-line.

His new website www.colinbellart.com has recently been launched. A fellow-member of the Calgary Artists’ Society recommended an artist specific web service, and it seems it was a good fit. It’s a modest start of just a few pages, but overall the design and the photo galleries are simple and clean.

Colin Bell is a very capable painter in any medium. He’s recently painted a couple of pieces referencing my photography of the Wild Pacific Trail. I’m flattered, the paintings are stunning… here’s a peek.