Next Thursday there is an opening celebration of two new exhibitions at 7.30 and as usual these celebrations are open to the public and free of admission.

LessLIE is a Coast Salish First Nations artist who uses the traditional west coast motifs and at the same time he turns the artwork into a contemporary piece. For instance a painting he did in 2006 about salmon is titled fOUR salmon, yOUR salmon - the title itself is a matter of text - the printing of the title has the letters O U R capitalized in the words four and your thus changing the inherent meaning of the piece from your salmon to our salmon. This obvious play on words is to remind us that the salmon is ours whether we are first nations or not. The works themselves are richly coloured and beautifully executed. LessLIE will be in the gallery all week installing work in the gallery and he will be giving an artist's talk at the opening on Thursday the 21st.

 
Claire Kujunkzic is a painter based in Wells - east of Quesnel near Barkerville. Her work is about where we live and how we do that. She uses very traditional methods of painting that remind us of cave paintings. The images are subtle with an earthy palette and seriously beautiful. She looks at where she lives, the history of that along with the current pine beetle situation which is changing the face of the forest which again calls into question our current thinking about our environment, where we live and what we do with that.

 
Join in the celebration: This Thursday 7.30 at the gallery for both artists talks, some lovely tastes sponsored by the new chef at the Ramada and music by the Warren Reivelle Trio. Everyone is welcome.