Next up for Dan Gray is a trip to Bella Bella with some fellow artists to support the Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s efforts to protest the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
Gray departs on June 18 to participate in a project that will see 50 artists, some of the country’s most celebrated take their paints, canvases and carving tools to portray Canada’s fragile raincoast.
The idea is to bring international attention to the dramatic beauty and fragile diversity of B.C.’s coastal wilderness at risk if tankers are permitted to ship tar sands oil through the narrow and dangerous channels of the north and central B.C. coast.
Gray will join such artists as Robert Bateman and Roy Henry Vickers who will paint remote coastal locations.
Their artwork will then be compiled in a coffee-table book, Canada’s Raincoast At Risk: Art for an Oil-Free Coast, set for publication next fall.
In addition to sales of the book, a traveling art show of the original paintings will raise awareness of the need to protect the coast.
Gray said he will spend four days painting.
“My plan is to paint as much as possible.”
He said some of the works will be on exhibit at his open studio August 18 and 19 in Errington, including a pastel Gray recently completed for the Errington Volunteer Fire Department (EVFD).
The 18x24” piece depicts one of the department’s first fire trucks. A raffle for the art work worth over $1,400 is being held by the EVFD with tickets sales beginning in July and the draw taking place in October during the department’s open house for fire prevention awareness week.
For more information about Gray visit www.dfgray.com.