Rainforest Arts

There are many ‘layers’ to Julie Nygaard’s photo-art creations in both literal and figurative senses of the word – layers of meaning, of personal trauma, symbolism, belief and imagery. But what it all comes down to are the layers she assembles in the digital realm of Adobe Photoshop. “I’m like a photographer-painter, I guess is…

Featured at Rainforest Arts March & April If Claudia Lohmann’s Grade 3 art teacher saw what she’s doing now with her ‘Imaginative Geometric Art’, he would make her stand up in front of the class and explain herself. After all, who sees faces in the clutter of a tool shed or a kitchen drawer? But…

The same winter sun shines down on San Miguel de Allende as on Chemainus, but its hues and intensity are dampened here, the vibrant colours animating the streets of that central Mexican city doused by our moody climate and its subdued light filtered through Vancouver Island’s cloud and mists. But artist Rohana Laing, whose Los…

Rainforest Arts is a shop and gallery you’ll want to visit when you’re in Chemainus, filling out your Christmas wish-list. Not only will you find a great selection of paintings, jewellery, sculpture, fabric art, pottery and cards, you’ll also find an affordable range of prices and styles. There’s something for everyone at Rainforest Arts. Art…

Barry Strasbourg-Thompson can trace the lines of his artistic heritage back a long way. Seated in his new studio and gallery space in the Chemainus Community Market, he cites a lineage that goes back three generations and more. “My grandmother had her arts certificate at fifteen, her teaching certificate at sixteen,” he said. “But in…

Terroir (pronounced tear•war for non-connoisseurs in the crowd) isn’t a nuance normally associated with the visual arts; it’s that often pricy bouquet of specific vintages of wine, infused into the grapes by the earth they were grown in. But for Christi York, whose Wildworks show will be featured at Rainforest Arts August and September, her…

For Wayne and Kathy Enslow the bits and pieces have been coming together over the last four years, as they’ve mastered the techniques and mindset of metal art sculpture in the eclectic clutter of their Cowichan Valley studio. Their passion for welding together nuts, bolts, bushings, spoons, forks – just about any pieces of metal…

Artists are so intensely focused on their works, that they are usually unaware of how the art of becoming an artist is part of the process – that painting, writing, dancing, and in Peggy Grigor’s case, working with clay, are transformative acts. About a year ago, though, a shift from shaping clay mostly on a…

The title of Craig Golby’s show, Above & Below, can be interpreted in several intriguing ways. As a nature photographer, he points his lens sky and landward, capturing eagles in flight, bears pawing along shorelines, and stunning vistas from bird’s eye views. As a diver, he takes you beneath the waves, into the magnificent habitats…