Naturescopic

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Ralph Brian Sears, “Ambleside Wild Rose,” 2024

oil on canvas, 30x24 (courtesy of Ferry Building Gallery and Ralph Sears)

Opening Reception: Thursday, February 6, 6–8 p.m.

The Ferry Building Gallery is proud to present Naturescopic, an exhibition featuring Marianne Hansen, Ralph Sears, and Stephanie Taylor. Through their artworks, the artists explore the beauty and fragility of the natural world, encouraging viewers to pause, reflect, and truly observe.

Ralph Sears looks for the unexamined and forgotten beauty found in the changing seasons. He records these overlooked moments in nature with his camera and then spends two to three hundred hours replicating the image in painting. This labour of love aims to captivate views and slow them down into appreciating the complexity and glory of the natural world around us.

Like Sears, Stephanie Taylor draws inspiration from natural places that she has visited. When moving through landscapes, Taylor gathers not just visual cues like colour and light but also sensations: the smell of damp rocks, the hum of insects, sunlight filtering through leaves. These impressions shape her paintings, blending layers and experimentation to evoke emotions both personal and universal. Working in large-scale means that Taylor can transform spaces and take the viewer back to a moment of meditation in nature.

Marianne Hansen’s Birds of Prey series highlights the often-tense coexistence between raptors and humans. Her fiber sculptures celebrate these majestic creatures, blending realism with artistic interpretation. Slightly scaled down, the birds’ delicate forms and commanding presence are accentuated, inviting viewers to reflect on their beauty and fragility.

Meet the Artists: Saturday, February 8, 2–3 p.m.