Skip to content

5 new exhibits open at McMillan Arts Centre in Parksville

Exhibitions will display until Oct. 23
30547234_web1_221005-PQN-MAC-Exhibits-Oct-photo_2
Jennifer McIntyre’s display is one of five new exhibitions on display at the McMillan Arts Centre (MAC) in Parksville until Oct. 23. (Submitted photo)

Five new exhibits are on display at the McMillan Arts Centre (MAC) in Parksville.

Works by Stephen Cole, Maxx Duncalfe, Irene Orrom, Nicky Morgan and Jennifer McIntyre will hang in the arts centre until Oct. 23, according to a news release by the MAC (133 McMillan St.).

Cole “has a deep yearning to connect or communicate with the essence of who we are,” the release read. “A self that is most present when carving. If his stone carvings had a theme, it would be living a conscious life full of spirit.”

His exhibit, Truth in Chaos, includes stone, hydrostone, concrete, wood, glass, cold cast bronze, resin, pigments and metal in his unique sculptures and wall art. Stone carvings have the strongest connection for Cole, but he also loves to explore the combination of different and dissimilar mediums.

Seven years ago he combined a sand sculpture with a life-cast and recast the result in hydrostone. This inspired the Mermaid series of hydrostone, pigments, bronze powder and acrylics. Since then, he has combined life casts and sculpture into a constantly evolving series.

Paintings are still a passion for Stephen as he explores different mediums and techniques. He uses acrylics, mixed media, resin, pigments, cold cast bronze on canvas, board and glass.

READ MORE: New open-air entrance pavilion opens at Parksville Museum

He has been in numerous group exhibitions on Vancouver Island, Vancouver, and Gabriola. His stone sculptures have won Best in Stone at the Ladysmith Fine Art Show in 2021 and 2018. Cole was chosen as one of 50 artists to participate in the 2020 Global Art Festival in Gujarat, India where he carved and created two sculptures in the White Desert of Kutch.

Duncalfe grew up in an isolated part of northern Canada.

“I developed a closeness with the natural world as a young child,” she said, in the release. That kinship and the connection to the West Coast of B.C. and Gabriola Island, where she has resided for the past 15 years, is the basis of her art. The patterns and textures of nature are turned into strikingly realistic pieces.

Duncalfe creates felted cushions and seats that echo the smooth shapes of river rocks and surf, sanded stones and ocean motif resin art on wood — creating charcuterie and cutting boards using the natural elements of the wood.

She is a self taught artist, living on Gabriola Island , who works primarily with wood, resin and wool.

Surrounded by the beauty of nature’s elements, Duncalfe lets the pieces organically evolve, allowing each one to be its own unique voice.

Orrom’s Acknowledging Uncertainty exhibit revisits the process of collage as a method of grounding the concept of the present before extending the process of tackling the paradigm of control by superimposing line, colour blocks and gestural mark making.

Orrom was born in Edmonton and worked as a radiological technologist for many years before studying fine arts at the University of Alberta.

The title of Morgan’s exhibition, Perfect Placement, refers to a common theme in her new body of work of assemblages and mixed media papers collage.

“Making art for me is an essential part of who I am and how I interact in the world,” Morgan said, in the release. “At an early age I recognized the importance of artistic expression. Whether through painting, drawing, writing or even music, creativity helped to define who I was and still am today. The process of making art is as personal as it is mysterious.”

She works with colour, value and form in various mediums. Reoccurring images, shapes and symbols emerge often in her work. Morgan believes it is essential to trust the process, which helps in the unfolding of new ideas. An unexpected is simply an opportunity for the next experience.

Morgan has worked as an exhibiting artist, educator, children’s book writer and illustrator and community art advocate. As a board member on the North Vancouver Public Art Committee as well as chairing the Funds for the Arts on the North Shore, she believes art plays an important part in a healthy community.

TILT! by McIntyre asks what happens when perspective tilts?

The traditional still life painting changes dramatically as surfaces, objects and spaces relate in new and unfamiliar ways. Add a lively colour palette and varieties of pattern along with a trip to the florist’s shop and my new still life paintings have an energetic, surprising and playful presence.

“I spend as much time as possible in my studio,” said McIntyre, who works in mixed media, acrylic painting and printmaking. “I have always been interested in design and have been enjoying working with pattern and colour in still life.”

For McIntyre, each painting is a puzzle to be solved: the colour combinations and choices, contrast of darks and lights, exploration of dominance and subtlety, consideration of nuances of composition are all challenging.

Her work has been exhibited in hotel residencies, restaurants, galleries, community art centres and studio tours. She has also been a member of the Oak Bay Arts Advisory Committee.

As a teenager, McIntyre attended the Vancouver School of Art Saturday classes and the Banff School of Fine Arts. She trained as a teacher at the University of Victoria, with a specialty in Visual Arts and English and started teaching high school at 22.

McIntyre added courses in graphic design, photography, ceramics, drawing, printmaking and painting. She completed an master of education degree at the University of Oregon in Curriculum and Instruction, with a specialty in Community Education.

— NEWS Staff, submitted

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.