The paintings exhibited by two award-winning artists in Qualicum Beach show unmistakable coherence, and the artists also happened to be related.
Helen Webster and her daughter Lisa Danesin are exhibiting a show they call Convergence and Metaphor at the Old School House Arts Centre until Oct 26.
Danesin said she was a little nervous about whether her and her mother’s paintings would work together.
“We were very pleasantly surprised,” she said. “And kind of fascinated by how similar so many of our marks are even though we paint in a different way, and in different places and are probably inspired by different things, and yet when you put them together, it’s very integrated.”
Leigh Buchanan is also exhibiting her work at TOSH, aiming to capture and share the sensory experience of living on the Central Island.
Danesin, who recently won second for an abstract piece in the Arrowsmith Chapter FCA Fall Show, said she’s always been an artist, and was often scribbling artwork onto her desk at school.
Webster said she played around with art a bit in her younger years but didn’t have time to pursue art seriously until about 10 years ago when she retired. Webster said her paintings at TOSH combines line, movement and colour showing depth and convergence.
“They are really an effort, as all abstracts are, to express ideas and feelings and emotions. The content comes from within.”
Webster uses more colour than her daughter and she said the other big difference is Danesin’s use of drawing. Calligraphic lines and human shapes are more evident in Danesin’s work.
Buchanan has a separate exhibition of her paintings at TOSH, showing moments she has had in special outdoor places around the area. The majority of her pieces have been painted on wood panels and show the Englishman River, Rathtrevor Park and Parksville Beach, among other landscapes.
“The wood creates a sense of history which to me means time passing and movement,” she said.
View the work of all three artists at TOSH until Oct 26. For more on TOSH visit www.theoldschoolhouse.org.