Catherine Fraser: Spirit of Place - Isle of Iona
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The Chapel Gallery 600 Richmond Avenue, Victoria, British Columbia V8S 3Y7
Opening is Friday Jan 18, 5-7pm Artist’s Talk at 5:30pm
Catherine Fraser has visited Iona four times between 2009-2015. “There is a special energy I experience on Iona,” she says, “The air is different, other worldly and timeless, renewing and replenishing my creativity.” On daily excursions, the artist visited stone age burial sites, isolated beaches and rocky hilltops, traversing fields of heather and skirting peat bogs.
The energetic vibrations of Iona take shape and form in the exhibition’s paintings. Fraser is an award-winning artist and member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, with work in international collections. The Duncan area artist participates in the Visions Studio Tour and is a member of the Cowichan Artisans. She is also a registered nurse with training in art therapy, and likes to experiment with various techniques. While on Iona, the artist used a variety of media and methods to describe her experiences. She took her sketch book on outings and paused to draw and take photographs. Plein air watercolour paintings were also completed on excursions. On stormy days, she worked inside on many-layered veil paintings. One memorable evening she completed Touch Drawings in the Iona Abbey while listening to an organ recital of Bach music.
Curator Nicky Rendell has a Fine Arts Diploma from the Vancouver Island School of Art. A member of the St Matthias congregation and practicing artist, her goal with the Chapel Gallery is to engage community with meaningful dialogue. “Our seasonal themes are universal themes,” she says, “designed to enrich and inform visitors.” Well acquainted with the Celtic Christian mythos that surrounds Iona, Rendell visited the island in 2016. She believes that everyone who visits Iona is touched in some way. “I resonated strongly with the sacred nature of the place,” she says. For the curator, Fraser’s paintings explain how the human persona and spiritual realm can connect and interact in various ways.