Jackie Dowell-Irvine: Artists in the Window series
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Yukon Artists @ Work Cooperative 4129 4 Avenue, Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 1H7
Jackie Dowell Irvine, "Distant Rain, Yukon," 2020
watercolour on paper
Teeny tiny paintings slide into acrylics
Jackie Dowell-Irvine will be painting as part of the Artists in the Window series at Yukon Artists @ Work August 25-28. She will create daily watercolours as well as branching out into acrylics, continuing the “TNT” series she’s been doing since Covid began.
As a self-employed artist, Dowell-Irvine books various commitments two to three months out, for the most part. When we closed down for Covid at the end of March, all of her carefully created plans were cancelled. This was of course financially disconcerting. But artistically, Dowell-Irvine found it freeing. “It was as if a wind came in and swept away all the leaves,” she says.
So she found herself at her home near Faro, with nothing she was obligated to do for other people. She had to ask herself, what do I really want to do myself, as an artist? And she found she wanted to make small watercolours, like she did when she began.
So every day, Dowell-Irvine made a watercolour, painting just what she wanted to paint. She worked less from references and more from her imagination. She shared her paintings on Facebook, and sent many of them through the post as gifts for friends and family.
She hopes that people who buy – or win – these paintings will consider sharing them with their loved ones through the post as well to people they can’t see right now.
Dowell-Irvine will host a daily draw for her tiny watercolours, but you have to actually come into the Yukon Artists @ Work gallery in order to be entered into the draw. She is keen to share her excitement not only about her artwork but also about the work of all the YA@W members and hopes to draw visitors in to experience it in person.
She will also be branching out into small acrylics on canvas, not for the draw, but to shake up the medium a bit for herself, during her time painting in the window.
Find out more about Dowell-Irvine’s work at http://jackieirvine.blogspot.com/, or on Facebook @Jackie Dowell-Irvine
Jackie Dowell-Irvine will be demonstrating in the Yukon Artists @ Work window August 25-28, 11-2 pm. You can also register for a Zoom artist talk with her, Thursday August 27 at 6:30 pm. Drop by YA@W, call 393 4848, or email yaaw@artlover.com to register.
You can see her work featured in the window until Monday August 31. Watch for Jeanine Baker working on fused glass artworks in the window starting September 2. The Artists in the Window series continues until September 4, but expect to see artists continuing to demonstrate their work in the window in a more informal way this fall and winter.
The Yukon Artists @ Work gratefully acknowledges the collaboration of Arts in the Park and funding from the Yukon Arts Fund in supporting this project.