www.markpenneygallery.com

Cubist Photo-Realism and by Nigel Brooks Peer
20″x30″ Giclee on Canvas.
$500

This image is one singular image, it’s a straight photo, un-manipulated.
It expresses Nigel’s fascination with reflections and contains within it the essence of what he strives to create in his artwork. Layers of reflections, in a perspective encapsulating the many facets of an individual experience.

Nigel Brooks Peer describes this as Cubist Photo-Realism; Cubism depicts object from multiple perspectives creating an image with greater context, showing impossibly more than you could experience at once. Photo Realism usually references the adaptation of pseudo-photographic detail in art, attention to details especially reflections, highlights, lens flares and distortions … art has been long been influenced by photography and photography has reciprocated by truly becoming art.

Lakeside Tranquility by Ken Kirkby
36″x36″ Oils on Canvas
$3000
Tranquility is the quality of calm experienced in places with mainly natural features and activities, free from disturbance from man-made areas.

At Peace, Spider Lake by Ken Kirkby
60″x30″ Oils on Canvas
$4000
This tall painting has all of the signature elements of a Kirkby’s lake-side paintings, grass, rocks, the tranquil reflection of the lake, but in this example Ken has rendered the detail on the tree trunk where the light strikes it, establishing a level of detail that keeps me staring out over the water and at the subtle details of this painting.

Seastar Search by Peggy Burkosky
Watercolor on Arches Paper
20″x28″ image (framed 30″x37″)
$1200

Peggy paints a true reflection of her life, from west coast scenery to portraiture. Naturally the subject is often her family but when called upon, Peggy Burkosky has been known to paint extraordinary watercolor portraits.

Still Reflections by Ken Kirkby
30″x30″ Oil on Canvas
$2500
Tranquility, reflection, simplicity and balance; all equally describe this Kirkby painting. A little smaller than most of Ken’s work, this piece masterfully depicts a scene with sparse detail and a minimalist approach to realism.

Wikaninish Reflections – Mark Penney
20″x34″ Photographic print (giclee) on archival canvas.
$400

The Wik, is a great place to spend a sunny afternoon. Each beach in the area has it’s own distinct feel, and the wik is a friendly place that accommodates a large number of people without feeling crowded. Surfers, tourists, wedding parties, visitors to the Interpretive centre, restaurant patrons, and families, still there’s room to feel like you have the place all to yourself.

Island Reflections by Ken Kirkby
36″x36″ Oil on Canvas
sold (private collection)

Ken puts forth a very refined graphic style. He’s a very accomplished painter by any measure. His works feature a stillness that I’d be tempted to compare to canadian realists such as Christopher Pratt or Alex Colville.

Peggy Burkosky – Rebecca Spit (Print)

Limited Edition Giclee print on cotton
image 16″x22″

signed and numbered 1/50

$595 framed

A coastal scene and a true reflection of the artists life. Peggy has spent a lot of time observing the west coast, from the family fishing boat and remote beach locations along the coastline of vancouver island.

Rob Elphinstone specializes in capturing the beauty of the Canadian west coast through his textured wild flowing landscapes. His art reflects the belief that our senses reveal only a shadow of what we truly experience. Rob believes that the beauty of a place is hardly ever replicated in a photo or a video. Our senses take in a fraction of what we perceive about the world. This tiny fraction is the shadow of what is really there.
Good art should not have to be about what the inner psyche experiences or displaying perfectly what is optically there but should be about the unseen reality that everyone feels. Every one of his art pieces reflects the premise that creative art stems from what is truly evident in nature rather than the shadow that can be photographed.
The term “Actualism art” is used to distinguish this art form from the emotionally based “expressionism” trend. Reality is more than just the sum our emotional impressions and the sense detection of an external scene. The realism art discipline attempts to capture the latter and expressionism the former.
Rob Elphinstone’s version of Actualism art allows that the observer can interpret the “actual” and create works that capture the essence of the observed in a fundamental way.
 The process of laying down textured brushstrokes helps capture the elusive nature so evident when we look outside. The textured brushstrokes give the paintings a unique look. This technique yields a complexity that mimics nature and that permeates every portion of the pieces he creates.  From a distance, the painting comes together through form as a coherent whole, but each portion catches the eye in a manner that draws the viewer into it.

“… I see the Vincent influence, but your art evokes the brushwork of Soutine and I see  a distinct passionate style influenced by nature… This man’s art is going to find a huge public appreciation in the future.” – W. Matthews, a Vancouver collector

“His paintings radiate light from a hidden painful world, creating a natural atmosphere of intimacy. Combining thousands of colors in constant dynamism, sky, water and vegetation seem grouped to dance to the beat of your pulse, full of feelings and passions. His art is called “Actualism Art” as a testimony of a key reality that the author reflects in his work.”
Ricardo César Lescano Grosso, Art Critic, Argentina.

Selected Juried Exhibitions:
Artists for Peace, International Art Action, Dolmabahce State Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009

Art on Record, APW Gallery, NYC, USA, 2009

VI International Festival of Experimental Art, Manege Museum of Contemporary Art, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2008.

American Sandwich, Piano Living Gallery, Lecce, Italy, 2008.
Smiles Exhibition, Royal Castle, Warsaw Poland, 2008.
NHU 25th Anniversary Fiesta, National Hispanic University, San Jose, USA, 2007.

Nuit Blanche, ACA Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2007.
VIII International  “Dialogues” Biennial of Modern Art, Manege Museum of Contemporary Art,  Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2007. 

1st International Art Biennial of Sorocaba, Espaços Públicos da cidade de Sorocaba, Scorocaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2007.
Reflections, ACA Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2006
Urban Eyes Art Exhibition, Nanaimo Art Gallery, Nanaimo, Canada, 2006.
Landscapes and Timescapes, ACA Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2006. 

 Global Fusion, Toronto Photographic Festival, ACA Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2006.
Premio Internazionale D’Arte San Valentino, Vico del Gargano, Italy, catalogue, February 11-19, 2006.


 In the Footsteps of Jules Verne, Decourtenay  Galleries, Chatelet, Belgium, 2006

3º SALÃO OFICIAL DE ARTE DE CARAGUATATUBA, San Paolo, Brazil, 2006. |

LANDSCAPES,  Estense Castle, Ferrara, Italy, 2005
DIVINE CELEBRATIONS OF SPIRIT, ACA Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2005.

TESTOSTERONE – A MAN’S TRADE, Covent Garden Fine Art Gallery, Wellington, Canada, 2005

Feature Artist, Oakleaf Gallery, Chemainus, Canada, 2005.

Open House, Studio 737, Tweed, Canada, 2005.
Feature Artist, Fat Cat Fine Art, Victoria, Canada 2005.

Living in the Tofino , Ucluelet area, represented by Mark Penney Gallery in Ucluelet Nigel brooks Peer has recently been recognized by National Geographic.

www.nigelbrookspeer.com nigelbrookspeer@gmail.com

Throughout my life, I’ve been a free thinker and traveller, who passionately expresses through mixed media arts. I’ve explored the world for years, getting in touch with how rich and poor people live all over the world.

My travel and experiences inspire me to make art that gets people thinking about the conventions we live in, our past, our culture and our part in it.

Born April 27, 1972 in Vancouver, B.C. Took very fist picture with a disposable black and white camera when i was 6 in the redwood forest in California . I was very close to my grandfather, we share the same birthday. After he died, I picked up his camera and started using it taking photos.

Growing up in Surrey, I witnessed racial violence and saw farmland and forest change into suburban sprawl. This opened my eyes at a young age to how different cultures collide and grow together.

My whole understanding of the planet and where we are today is reflected in my art. Seeing and experiencing all different cultures through travel allowed me to understand the global picture, and how we affect the planet and each other.

After high school I went to South Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore and got my first taste of world travel. I returned home to attend college studying history and philosophy, then art through sculpture and ceramics. After graduating, I continued my travels through eastern Mediterranean and Africa visiting historical sites in Egypt, Greece, Turkey and Italy.

Inspired to play with art further I attended Emily Carr focusing on ceramics sculpture . In my work I explored the juxtaposition between earth and gravity. I also experimented with crystalline glazes on ceramics . Leaded to photography for easier dialog for everyday people to challenge our understanding of international culture , modern society , and our environment .

I traveled again in Europe seeking new expression for myself. I got involved in photo documenting what was going on in countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary. I was developing my eye and becoming more of a photographer. I shot rolls and rolls of film because it felt like the right thing to do. I didn’t understand what I was doing until years later when I used these images in my current work. International Social commentary …

In the middle of art school I continued my world travels through all the major continents, doing documentary photography in India, Cambodia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Peru, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and such far off places such as Papua New Guinea, Tibet and Rapa Nui. Landing in morocco on September  11 , 2001 .

Traveling all over western Canada , exploring or culture , from the oil patch , to organic farms . Lived in work camps in the frozen north , now in small resort town Tofino .

Feeling that I have a voice that needs to be heard, I’m now fully involved in creating art though digital photography looking at the reflections we all need in our time . Recently recognized by National Geographic . Readdressing old work and digital remastering and printing with contemporary giclee print technology. I’m also getting involved in meditation, following a spiritual existence that I’ve always felt. Energetic Elemental Zen …

*Education

1998 – 2003  Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Vancouver, B.C.

1992 – 1996  Kwantlen University College, Surrey, B.C.

I know and respect each of the artists represented in the gallery, some I have worked with for many years, others have come to know me recently, through the gallery. I try not to limit the works to any specific genre, scale or medium despite my own personal biases.

It’s an absolute pleasure to admire, display, reproduce, sell artwork that I’m genuinely enthusiastic about.

Many visitors are amazed to learn how many artists are from Vancouver Island or who travel here to paint, study, vacation and sometimes to disappear for a while.

Charles Villiers seldom offers explanation of his work. He prefers to remain a bit of a mystery, leaving the viewer to form their own opinions of his art. Prolific painter, sculptor and more recently digital media artist, he’s made a transition that many artists struggle with; the process of making your art in different mediums without loosing your style. Somehow even highly technical compositions retain a bit of the innocence of his earlier figurative and nonobjective works. It’s not unlike the way you can still sometimes see the boy within a man.

Ken Kirkby is renowned at an internal level as a decisive canadian painter, he has a distinct graphic style formed by many bush miles. His paintings depict a minimal stillness not unlike other noted canadian realists. He’s a very passionate man who has a dedication to making an impact as an artist that goes well beyond painting.

Rob Elphinstone is a physicist whose area of expertise is the study of the northern lights. I find it fascinating that his work to quantify something ethereal is also reflected in his art, he’s an actualist painter and his paintings depict his experience, not technically what he saw.

Marla Thirsk – is known as Ucluelet’s artist, and I’d have to say she’s so much more. Almost every art event, function, group in the area has benefited directly from Marla’s help. The Whale Festival posters have been a calling card of hers for years. I’m pleased to have several exciting work of hers.

Jeff Edwards – a well known sculptor, and a well liked crab fisherman. Jeff chooses his stone from local area quarries, his works are highly prized. His enchanting bears, and marine mammals are well liked and collected, I’m happy to be showing several of Jeff’s figures, and shapes.

Joan Larson – renowned for her equine (horse) Illustrations, she works almost exclusively in pastels. We’re very pleased to showcase several of her local landscapes, and look forward her RCMP Musical Ride Series.

Peggy Burkosky – Known as a advanced watercolorist, Peggy is an capable painter in any medium. Her paintings have a sincerity about them, a true reflection of her island life. Sea scape scenes often include her daughter, family, or Bob’s fish boat, they are stunning paintings and portraiture. She teaches her secrets at the Old School House in Parksville.

Richard Hoedl – An accomplished painter, his bright whimsical style catches alot of attention. Richard paints in a walnut based oil on deep streched canvas.

Terry Jackson is a Metis artist working in carved wood, silver and cast porcelain. His contemporary use of materials lends a refreshingly clean look to his culturally based works. The porcelain is highly collectible, and the silver reflects an intrinsic value. Terry’s woodwork ranges from masks and wall panels to commissioned totem poles.

Jacqueline Windh, a Tofino based photographer, is well known for captivating seascapes and wildlife. Her work is frequently published and she regularly contributes to CBC Radio.

Nigel Brooks Peer is an art photographer of a different kind, he’s well travelled has worked in several genres, and is fascinated with reflections. He’s formed a style of his own in multiple image exposures, juxtaposing images, often on first blush they’re seemingly unrelated subjects, but subtle cultural refrences emerge to poke at your conceptions of art and photography.