Much of the artwork and interest in that artwork on Vancouver Island is, of course, based in nature, with landscapes, floral and wild animal pieces being popular.
And while Quadra Island-based artist Perrin Sparks is certainly inspired by the beautiful environment around her, she is excited to show the kind of work that she loves the most in her upcoming exhibition at TOSH (The Old School House Arts Centre, 122 Fern Rd. West, Qualicum Beach) from Sept. 4-30.
The exhibition, showing 50 pieces created as far back as 16 years ago and as recently as the last few months, heavily features pastel sketches of people. It’s the kind of work Sparks rarely has the opportunity to show, as it doesn’t tend to sell well, she said.
“I care less about what sells at the moment, than to just have people recognize what it is I really do, what it is I really love,” she said.
This figurative work grew out of Sparks’s study of the human form from her former job as a surgical illustrator. Making live sketches of people continues to be some of her favourite work to do, though she said there isn’t as much interest here in buying a piece of artwork depicting a stranger as there was when she lived in the southern United States.
She was a bit surprised herself, she recalls, when she made her first sale.
“They were just a technique for me to learn how to paint the figure,” she said of her early figurative work.
“I hung them up in my office… and some lady came in, she was the wife of one of the doctors. She stopped in and said, ‘I’d like to see some more of this work,’ so she came to my house and I had a picture of an old man… kind of an old biker, and she said, ‘I’d like to buy that,’ and I said, ‘Really? But you don’t know him.’ And she said, ‘Well I wouldn’t turn down the Mona Lisa just because I didn’t know her,’” recounted Sparks with a laugh.
“That began a career of maybe 10 years when I was still in Texas of selling paintings of people that I thought were interesting to paint.”
Back then, Sparks was working from models who would sit for many, many hours. Most of her work in this upcoming show are pastel sketches done in a much shorter period of time.
This longstanding interest in figurative work doesn’t mean Sparks hasn’t been exploring new techniques and subjects.
She confesses an interest in etching and printing, and, after moving to Quadra Island, focused on making her process environmentally friendly.
One of the latest techniques she’s working on involves applying a photosensitive emulsion to a thin steel plate, laying a sketch on an acetate sheet overtop and leaving the plate in the sun.
This results in grooved areas on the steel where light didn’t touch. Sparks can then use the steel plate as a kind of stamp in her press to create dozens of prints.
That’s in theory, anyway. She’s experimenting with using multiple plates to layer images onto her prints, resulting in difficulties. And there are many, many variables involved.
Nonetheless, she managed to get a print done and in the show using this process. It depicts a bough holding several zebra finches, and has Japanese artwork inspiration behind it, said Sparks.
“I almost gave up,” she said, “but I finally got a set of exposures, and the ink consistency right to pull this one, but it probably took about, I’d say… maybe six weeks of working just on that.”
Sparks’s work will be up at TOSH from Sept. 4-30, with an opening reception on Wednesday, Sept. 5 at 2 p.m.