Comox Valley Arts presents this adjudicated exhibition that takes place in the winter and spring at the Comox Valley Airport. The call for submissions is announced in the Fall and the show is up through early Spring.
For more information see website: Comox Valley Arts Public Arts and Culture Program.
Artist Name: | Angela Skaley |
Medium: | Wood panel |
Dimensions: | 18" x 24" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $995 |
She received her Fine Arts diploma from Grant MacEwan University (2009) receiving the Dean's Award for Academic and Community Excellence as well as her Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts from Emily Carr University (2012).
She often uses biomaterials such as clay and hair to develop earth-like formations, landscapes and aerial views. Her series of clay and acrylic paintings depict mountains in a cartographic style, sometimes calm and sometimes chaotic.
She is passionate about human stewardship with the land and how we can gain a deeper understanding of it.
Artist Name: | Angela Skaley |
Medium: | Wood panel |
Dimensions: | 12" x 12" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $330 |
She was raised in rural Alberta and has since lived across BC and Alberta, currently living in Port Alberni. She received her Fine Arts diploma from Grant MacEwan University (2009) receiving the Dean�s Award for Academic and Community Excellence as well as her Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts from Emily Carr University (2012).
She often uses biomaterials such as clay and hair to develop earth-like formations, landscapes and aerial views. Her series of clay and acrylic paintings depict mountains in a cartographic style, sometimes calm and sometimes chaotic.
She is passionate about human stewardship with the land and how we can gain a deeper understanding of it.
Artist Name: | Angelika Forray |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 4' x 4' |
Email: | |
Cost: | $990 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
To her, art is an incredible medium to share ideas, to express feelings beyond what can be spoken and to reveal the mystery and magic of existence.
She is a processed based artist, working spontaneously and intuitively. Honouring natural mark making and beauty captured in expressive strokes. The themes of her work dance around nature, spirituality, healing and issues we face in society as individuals and as a collective.
Angelika has exhibited her work at the Campbell River Art Gallery, Comox Valley Airport, Pearl Ellis Gallery, Denman Art Gallery and NIC exhibitions. She has published three books and is currently working on her forth. In 2023, Angelika completed an art residency at McLoughlin Gardens on Vancouver Island.
She is a graduate of NIC fine arts program and lives on Denman Island.
Artist Name: | Angelika Forray |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 4' x 5' |
Email: | |
Cost: | $1,800 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
To her, art is an incredible medium to share ideas, to express feelings beyond what can be spoken and to reveal the mystery and magic of existence.
She is a processed based artist, working spontaneously and intuitively. Honouring natural mark making and beauty captured in expressive strokes. The themes of her work dance around nature, spirituality, healing and issues we face in society as individuals and as a collective.
Angelika has exhibited her work at the Campbell River Art Gallery, Comox Valley Airport, Pearl Ellis Gallery, Denman Art Gallery and NIC exhibitions. She has published three books and is currently working on her forth. In 2023, Angelika completed an art residency at McLoughlin Gardens on Vancouver Island.
She is a graduate of NIC fine arts program and lives on Denman Island.
Artist Name: | Ash Woodworth |
Medium: | Graphite & Minerals |
Dimensions: | 28" x 22" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $1,500 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Once a painter, Ash decided to return to drawing. Through the process of drawing, Ash fell in love with the pencil and paper, the simplicity of tools and the meditative movement of mark making.
Drawing with Graphite pencil brings memories of her childhood and the joy found with the quiet pursuit of pencil on paper. Since returning to pencil, she has focused on the surreal and ethereal moments of everyday life and the natural world.
The beauty of British Columbia continues to inspire and influence her art practice.
Artist Name: | Ash Woodworth |
Medium: | Graphite & Minerals |
Dimensions: | 42" x 26" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $2,000 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Once a painter, Ash decided to return to drawing. Through the process of drawing, Ash fell in love with the pencil and paper, the simplicity of tools and the meditative movement of mark making.
Drawing with Graphite pencil brings memories of her childhood and the joy found with the quiet pursuit of pencil on paper. Since returning to pencil, she has focused on the surreal and ethereal moments of everyday life and the natural world.
The beauty of British Columbia continues to inspire and influence her art practice.
Artist Name: | Bronwyn Shuster |
Medium: | Oil |
Dimensions: | 18" Round |
Email: | |
Cost: | $900 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
My art practice is based on a love of nature and folklore through drawing, painting, and murals. When I create, I have a story or a myth in mind that I explore through queer identity and my local environment. I search for the magic in the mundane, and the ordinary in the fantastic.
The mediums I work with include watercolour, gouache, pencil crayon, and oil paint.
Artist Name: | Bronwyn Shuster |
Medium: | Oil |
Dimensions: | 14" Round |
Email: | |
Cost: | $700 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
My art practice is based on a love of nature and folklore through drawing, painting, and murals. When I create, I have a story or a myth in mind that I explore through queer identity and my local environment. I search for the magic in the mundane, and the ordinary in the fantastic.
The mediums I work with include watercolour, gouache, pencil crayon, and oil paint.
Artist Name: | Cara Weisner |
Medium: | Mixed Media |
Dimensions: | 9" x 12" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $250 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
If you look closely, you'll see paper collage featured, adding unique elements of texture and detail to her art. Collage papers are hand painted then individually torn and added to a painted canvas.
A mixed media artist from the Comox Valley, Cara is inspired by gorgeous flowers, serene seascapes - even quirky chickens!
Artist Name: | Caroline Stanley |
Medium: | Oil |
Dimensions: | 32" x 48" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $3,800 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Caroline graduated from the Alberta University of the Arts in 2007 and is now based in the Comox Valley on beautiful Vancouver Island. She spends most days in her studio where she plays with paint, dances to Michael Jackson gets lost in audiobooks and occasionally takes a nap on the floor. Her artwork continues to gain recognition for its unique take on landscape and vivid views of nature.
Artist Name: | Corina Menz |
Medium: | Acrylic |
Dimensions: | 20" x 24" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $620 |
My goal is to create compelling compositions that invite viewers to interpret the work in their own way and to bring their imagination and personal experiences to the story of my paintings.
Artist Name: | Diana Kolpak |
Medium: | Photograph |
Dimensions: | 24" x 36" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $350 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Published work includes photos in Conscilience and Counterflow magazines; the children's book Starfall; the play Bedtime Stories and poetry in several online magazines.
Her current theatrical work, BLUE, is an interactive musical odyssey through the ocean of love guided by former-mermaid-turned-lounge-singer Sally Siren.
Artist Name: | Elke River |
Medium: | Acrylic |
Dimensions: | 24" x 36" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $900 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
From a young age, she was fascinated with the animals and natural habitats that surrounded her. Exploring mangroves and coral reefs shifted to mountains and temperate rainforests when she moved with her family to coastal British Columbia at the age of ten. She eventually earned a BSc in Natural Resources Conservation and later a Bachelor of Education.
While pursuing a career in conservation and then education, Elke continued to paint, both as a creative outlet and an educational tool.
She currently lives on Quadra Island where she makes art, raises her two wild kids and teaches nature-based art programs.
Artist Name: | Helen Utsal |
Medium: | Acrylic, oil cold wax, oil stick |
Dimensions: | 54" x 48" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $5,180 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Hiking and paddling, she captures fleeting moments of light and serenity, with acrylics, oil, cold wax medium and drawing materials. Visit Helens studio/gallery in Courtenay on Saturdays.
Artist Name: | Jennell Ellis |
Medium: | Encaustic & Wet Cyanotype |
Dimensions: | 24" x 12" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $550 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
More recently, she discovered the magic of cyanotypes. She uses this camera-less photographic printing technique to develop her own photos or to create images with botanical materials using the sun or a UV light. The cyanotypes are often integrated with encaustic to create unique pieces.
Over the years, Jennell has taken a wide range of in-person and online courses from professional artists in Canada, the US and internationally. While she started her creative explorations in the Yukon, she now lives in Courtenay BC and works from her home studio.
Artist Name: | Jenny Mitchell |
Medium: | Mixed Media |
Dimensions: | 36" x 36" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $1,500 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
I explore the interplay of structured forms and the fluidity of natural shapes, searching for the balance between control and spontaneity. This requires a continuous process of reacting intuitively to marks, shapes, and color.
I asked myself "what ifs". As a former potter, I gravitate towards 3d, building layers of texture. My ultimate aim is that this visual dialogue of differences will spark connections aesthetically, intellectually, and emotionally.
Artist Name: | Joanne Nemeth |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 16" x 20" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $675 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Joanne, her husband and their three orange tabby cats relocated to Vancouver Island in 2016. They were barely settled in when Joanne began to immerse herself in an amazing art scene that offered incredible creative opportunities for artists and creators of every skill level. In 2018, another artist introduced Joanne to "dotting" mandalas on rocks and a fire to create art with acrylic dots was lit within! Dotting landscapes, trees and local wildlife with acrylic on canvas came next; a pointillist was born!
Joanne has shown her work in local venues, shows and galleries in Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Nanaimo, Duncan, Brentwood Bay, and Sooke BC. Joanne is a Signature Member (AFCA) of the Federation of Canadian Artists.
Artist Name: | Joanne Nemeth |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 12" x 16" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $400 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Joanne, her husband and their three orange tabby cats relocated to Vancouver Island in 2016. They were barely settled in when Joanne began to immerse herself in an amazing art scene that offered incredible creative opportunities for artists and creators of every skill level. In 2018, another artist introduced Joanne to "dotting" mandalas on rocks and a fire to create art with acrylic dots was lit within! Dotting landscapes, trees and local wildlife with acrylic on canvas came next; a pointillist was born!
Joanne has shown her work in local venues, shows and galleries in Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Nanaimo, Duncan, Brentwood Bay, and Sooke BC. Joanne is a Signature Member (AFCA) of the Federation of Canadian Artists.
Artist Name: | Josh Klassen |
Medium: | Spray paint and House paint |
Dimensions: | 24" x 36" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $800 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
After one year of Fine Arts studies at North Island College I decided to pursue a lifestyle of learning through hands-on experience. From doodling on freight trains in my formative years to community murals with youth; from sprucing up neighbourhood garage doors to doing graphic design; from commissioned portraits to solo cafe shows and making hip-hop music. It has been an interesting journey thus far to say the least.
I grew up in rural Black Creek and I currently live with my wife and daughter in Courtenay BC Canada.
Artist Name: | Karen Segee |
Medium: | Mixed media on canvas |
Dimensions: | 23.5" x 11.25" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $350 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Her natural design inclinations led her into a long career in publication and graphic design, and eventually her own Graphics business. She has since retired and returned full-time to her painting. With a love of color and pattern and influenced by the early Expressionists, she utilizes her design skills and experimentation with mixed media materials to reflect both the whimsy of everyday life and her love of the natural world.
Karen explores a variety of subjects while striving for a deeper understanding not only of the relationships between color, line, texture, and form, but also the interconnectedness between ourselves, our spirit and this beautiful planet we inhabit.
Since resuming her painting practice in 2023 she has participated in group shows at Artful The Gallery, Artwrx Studio Gallery and The Pearl Ellis Gallery in the Comox Valley.
This is not a religious painting, but about the spark we need sometimes from something outside ourselves, to remind us of the endless possibilities and teachings available to us and to 'regenerate' our spirit. I used Michelangelo's Creation of Adam both as a recognizable way to get the idea across and also as it relates to art and the creative process.
Artist Name: | Laurena Fairbairn |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 24" x 36" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $600 |
Working in many mediums, but most engaged in painting, she uses art as a tool for healing, as a form of play, and as a way to communicate knowledge about the natural world and the need for its preservation. She is a graduate of the Fine Arts Program at North Island College.
Artist Name: | Leslie Love |
Medium: | Acrylic, smudge of grease from Dad's shop |
Dimensions: | 26.75" x 26.75" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $425 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
She completed a BFA, Honors in Visual Arts with distinction at the University of Victoria in 2003, focusing on drawing, photography, and painting.
Her multimedia works often combine nostalgic family imagery, found, thrifted, gifted, and natural handmade materials. The medium informs and inspires her art, as she leaves wood grain, flaws, and unique qualities of materials exposed, revealing her concept and process. Her work depicts connections and relationships between people and demonstrates her deep love and respect for the environment.
Artist Name: | Lucy Schappy |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 48" x 48" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $4,900 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Working in oil or acrylic paint, she begins with loose and large shapes on the canvas, adding layers and gradually refining the rhythmic images. Influenced by Matisse and Diebenkorn's figurative work, Klee's experiments in colour and Ken Done's childlike, colorful depictions of everyday life, she improvises and inquires. Conversation flows intuitively between brush and paint, guiding the artist, as she relies on this calm and spacious practice not only for craft but for her wellbeing as a whole.
Schappy's method yields impressions informed by harmonious arrangements of light and space. Symbols and colour resonate in a dream-like world. Both the artist's love of life and her wild optimism smile from the canvas. The paintings are a sensual playground of abstract works, each telling a unique story. Her most recent pieces explore the horse as a symbol of strength, beauty, and community. Gentle and grounded horses stand easily with each other in amicable herds, evoking peace. Schappy's long-nurtured practice expertly distills their essence in simplified shapes and forms. Her figures feature strong women in sundrenched scenes surrounded by abundant flowers or tropical gardens, places where she dreams of being. Art is escape from the mundane. Schappy's landscapes reflect her love of the wild spaces that surround her on Vancouver and Quadra Island. Her whimsical depictions of imagined and remembered forests come from a lifetime of wandering in nature. Painting is play, a gift of joy the artist is glad to share Schappy has said "the greatest joy comes from the act of discovery." Her challenge is to stay open to what a painting wants to reveal, for the process never has a targeted outcome. The scene always changes, the magic always flows, dynamic and graceful, because the creative act is ever new, the graceful and rhythmic discoveries always resonant in the heart.
Artist Name: | Lucy Schappy |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 48" x 48" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $4,900 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Artist Name: | Lynn Hood |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 18" x 24" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $1,080 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
I�ve always had a love and connection with trees and Mother Earth, and I find that this propels me to create even more. There�s nothing quite as satisfying in my world than to walk through the woods touching the trees and smelling the air. A close second is wandering the shoreline, before, during, and after a storm.
My main medium is graphite, but paints, acrylic and water, have found their way into my heart as well. Creating gives me a freedom from the daily life as well as negative thoughts. This is especially true when I�m creating mandalas with trees and Celtic knotwork.
Artist Name: | Madeleine Wood |
Medium: | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions: | 18" x 24" |
Email: | |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Her formal education at Emily Carr and Concordia Universities enabled her to establish her studio practice in Vancouver and later in Fanny Bay where she feels a deeper connection to nature. The slowness of painting allows her to fully embody her relationship with the world around her and communicate this with you. Details often overlooked in life can be profound and nuanced and she�s learned to trust what attracts her eye through her camera lens.
She then translates these to oil paint, magnified often to encourage observation and reflection. Her realist visual language comes naturally from a classical upbringing, while questioning tradition through contemporary compositions. Madeleine exhibits regularly and welcomes commissioned work.
Artist Name: | Mads Elia |
Medium: | Mixed media collage |
Dimensions: | 8" x 10" |
Email: |
Originally from Fernie BC, the landing place of their Italian Grandparents, they strive to be aware of invisible influences casting shadows and dripping sauce on their artistic perspective; sharp stones, industry smoke, red sauce and catholic guilt. Mads is interested in breaking aesthetic expectations, ambiguity and the apocalypse. They would love to meet you if you like their work.
Artist Name: | Mads Elia |
Medium: | Collage |
Dimensions: | 8" x 10" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $200 |
Originally from Fernie BC, the landing place of their Italian Grandparents, they strive to be aware of invisible influences casting shadows and dripping sauce on their artistic perspective; sharp stones, industry smoke, red sauce and catholic guilt.
Mads is interested in breaking aesthetic expectations, ambiguity and the apocalypse. They would love to meet you if you like their work.
Artist Name: | Marianne Enhorning |
Medium: | Mixed media on canvas |
Dimensions: | 52" x 78" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $8,525 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Before architecture, she had studied fine arts as part of her BA and has now returned to her true vocation, painting.
Marianne creates evocative, dreamlike works in mixed media that are figurative, nature influenced and abstractly architectural. Her art emerges from her deep sense of longing for a world that is inclusive, equal and just; a world that is simple and kind.
"Painting is my voice, the place where I can express passions that words can't reach. I begin with a palette of paint, a new canvas and no preconceived ideas. When I raise my head, I see an image true to my being that still evades words."
Artist Name: | Marianne Enhorning |
Medium: | Mixed media on canvas |
Dimensions: | 60" x 30" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $3,775 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Before architecture, she had studied fine arts as part of her BA and has now returned to her true vocation, painting.
Marianne creates evocative, dreamlike works in mixed media that are figurative, nature influenced and abstractly architectural. Her art emerges from her deep sense of longing for a world that is inclusive, equal and just; a world that is simple and kind.
"Painting is my voice, the place where I can express passions that words can't reach. I begin with a palette of paint, a new canvas and no preconceived ideas. When I raise my head, I see an image true to my being that still evades words."
Artist Name: | Marlee Munro |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 4' x 5' |
Email: | |
Cost: | $2,800 |
As a painter, her work explores personal experiences, memories, and imaginings, beyond representation of the actual thing, through the vibrational power of colour. After graduating from the fine art program at North Island College in 2022, Marlee has continued her artistic practice from her home on Denman Island, while becoming a new mother in the summer of 2023.
She wishes to respectfully acknowledge that she lives, learns, and creates on the unceded traditional territory of the K'omoks, Homalco, Coast Salish, Tla'Amin, We-Wai-Kai and We-Wai-Kum First Peoples.
Artist Name: | Marlee Munro |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 24" x 36" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $840 |
She is informed by her interest in expanding awareness of what is within, and around us. As a painter, her work explores personal experiences, memories, and imaginings, beyond representation of the actual thing, through the vibrational power of colour.
After graduating from the fine art program at North Island College in 2022, Marlee has continued her artistic practice from her home on Denman Island, while becoming a new mother in the summer of 2023. She wishes to respectfully acknowledge that she lives, learns, and creates on the unceded traditional territory of the K��moks, Homalco, Coast Salish, Tla�Amin, We-Wai-Kai and We-Wai-Kum First Peoples.
Artist Name: | Roz MacLean |
Medium: | Natural pigment gouache, ink, collage |
Dimensions: | 8" x 10" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $450 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
She is interested in investigating ideas of human nature / diversity and relationship, community, mental health, interconnection, the natural and the mystical through an anti-oppressive and LGBTQIA + inclusive feminist lens.
She has written and illustrated multiple children's books, including CBC Kids Canada Reads pick More Than Words: So Many Ways to Say What We Mean (Henry Holt, 2023) and the upcoming Together, A Forest (Henry Holt, 2025).
Artist Name: | Sally Podmore |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 40" x 60" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $4,200 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
About the work:
Podmore draws on fragmentary perceptions, transposing them into abstracted narrative paintings that recall our embodied response to place. Her pieces invite the viewer to remember the temporal and sensory awareness of a landscape and our place within it. Our relationship with these spaces is discovered in how light passes through trees, wind blows, rocks are etched with time and weather, waves lap, sand churns, soil breathes, sun dances on our skin, and our bodies move through space.
Painted from memory or loose sketches made en plein air, each piece employs patterns, mark-making, and dappled brushstrokes to document a recollection - a map of the spirit. Earth tones collide with surprises of rich colour, and layers of dry strokes against deeply saturated brushwork create a collage-like experience of detail and pattern.
Artist Name: | Scott Bertram |
Medium: | Acrylic on stretched canvas |
Dimensions: | 48" x 55" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $4,600 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
He has a BFA from the University of British Columbia Okanagan and an MFA from NSCAD University. He was a finalist in the 12th RBC Canadian Painting Competition and has received many other awards including funding from the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
His paintings have been shown in solo and group exhibitions across Canada as well as in the USA, Australia, Germany, Mexico, and the UK. Scott currently teaches in the Fine Arts Department at North Island College.
Artist Name: | Tracy Kobus |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 24" x 36" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $2,295 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Tracy's paintings are loosely referenced from photographs and sketches of places she has explored, mostly on Vancouver Island. She believes that the landscape can serve as a powerful metaphor for many aspects of our life's journey. Besides painting, Tracy enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, backpacking, gardening and reading. Tracy also writes a monthly blog where she further reflects on her artistic process which you may find at www.tracykobus.com.
Artist Name: | Tracy Kobus |
Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
Dimensions: | 22" x 28" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $1,695 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Tracy�s paintings are loosely referenced from photographs and sketches of places she has explored, mostly on Vancouver Island. She believes that the landscape can serve as a powerful metaphor for many aspects of our life�s journey.
Besides painting, Tracy enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, backpacking, gardening and reading. Tracy also writes a monthly blog where she further reflects on her artistic process which you may find at www.tracykobus.com
Artist Name: | Wendy Morosoff Smith |
Medium: | Cold wax and oil paint |
Dimensions: | 45" x 60" |
Email: | |
Cost: | $6,200 |
WWW: | Artist's Website |
Wendy studied printmaking at the Santa Reparata Institute in Florence, Italy in 1990, and furthered her studies at the Emily Carr University in Vancouver. She lives in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, painting and printmaking in her studio overlooking the Salish Sea. She is a passionate advocate of the arts, teaching workshops and mentoring other artists.
Wendy's artwork has been collected and exhibited extensively in Canada and abroad. Her pieces can be found in many public collections including the TD Bank, Ernst & Young, QLT Inc, Langara College, Morris Industries, BDO Dunwoody, Four Seasons Hotels, Vancouver General Hospital, St Paul's Hospital, Lions Gate Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital and in the permanent collection of the Burnaby Art Gallery.