On hot summer days in Vancouver, I fall in the love with the city all over again. Places like Jericho beach and Spanish Banks make it so easy to find natural romance. I had forgotten about all of the great vegetation and avian treasures found so close to home. I hope this series reminds you of your summer loves. These pieces are on wood panels, have a lacquer like finish and many include a shimmery gold leaf.

A part of me took flight that day 16×20 inches SOLD

The other part of me is lovely 16×20 inches

I’d rather stay 11×14 inchesSOLD

It starts and ends here 11×14 inches

Greener pastures 8×10 inchesSOLD

One more step and we’ll be home againSOLD

Step into the dream 10×10 inches

Watching the fools 11×14 inches

The things only I can see 10×10 inchesSOLD

Listening to the wind 2 8×24 inchesSOLD

Discover the roots 8×24 inchesSOLD

Didn’t we shine brightly? 16×20 inchesSOLD

i want ot remember the stillness 16×20 inchesSOLD

With summer heating up, there has been much early morning studio activity. In the afternoon my East Van studio heats up and forces me in to the great outdoors. So hopefully , in the near future, you will see some paintings inspired by my summer explorations. In the meantime, here are some new pieces that reflect on my memory of winter in Vancouver and other lost loves.

Fleet-ing 1 11×14 inches SOLD

The first to go 11×14 SOLD

The rain danced circles around us 6×8 inches

Swimming across the sea to find you 6×6 inches

The tone of your voice said everything 6×6 inches SOLD

Fleet-ing 2 6×8 inches SOLD

If we could stay like this forever 6×8 inches

Working the crowd 6×6 inches

The light shines through 6×6 inches

Berry picking 6×8 inches SOLD

Blue Tuesday 6×8 inches

Come home 6×8 inches SOLD

Breaking the waves 6×16 inches

Golden Lights 6×16 inches

Swept away 6×16 inchesSOLD

No one was left behind 6×16 inchesSOLD

What lies beneath 6×16 inchesSOLD

Tempest 6×16 inchesSOLD

Link 6×6 inches

Pining 6×6 inchesSOLD

Together again (in gold) 8×10 inches SOLD

The future imagined 16×33 inches

What will be 16×33 inchesSOLD

Enjoy…if you would like to see them in person come to my Open House on Sunday July 27th 12-6pm @ 214-2050 Scotia st or schedule a studio viewing appointment.

Time to fly 3 6×6 inches

Time to fly 1 6×6 inches SOLD

The hanging garden 1 6×6 inches SOLD

Time to fly 2 6×6 inches

I hear your voice 5 8×10

Blue Horizon 1 12×24 inches

Blue Horizon 2 12×24 inches

Silver Springs 1 12×24 inches

Two by two 1 12×24 SOLD

Stanley park trio 16×36 inches

Silver Springs 2 18×40 inches

SOLD
Time to blossom 2 18×36 inches

On a recent trip to Belfast, Dublin and London I took these shots of the urban and rural landscapes.

Cheers!

Cheers! At the Guiness Factory in Dublin

My bro relaxing by the fire @ the very antique Bushmills pub

Fancy running away with the circus?!

The Bearded Lady Kendra and the Strong Man Hayden

A day at the Tate Modern

Art n Words on the street

On the street in Dublin

Royal spotting

Princes Charles and Camilla in London

So many chandeliers!

Chandelier @ Victoria and Albert Museum by Swarovski Crystal

Chandelier @ Victoria and Albert Museum by Chihuly

Chandelier in belfast

Chandelier in belfast

Belfast countryside

Northern ireland coastline

Giant’s causeway, County Antrim

Giant’s causeway, County Antrim

Giant’s causeway, County Antrim

If you are in the area please check out this group show at Art Interiors in Toronto.

www.artinteriors.ca

Enjoy….

Time to blossom 1 18×48

a gentle reminder 2 18×40 inches

Change on the horizon 14×31 inches

Time to blossom 2 18×40 inchesSOLD

Holding onto winter 2 16×36 inches

I hear your voice 1 8×10 inches SOLD

I hear your voice 2 8×10 inches SOLD

I hear your voice 3 8×10 inches SOLD

12×24 inches

I swear its not just a spring fling 18×36

Together again 1 12×12 inches SOLD

Thank you to everyone who came to our fabulous opening. Special thanks to Elizabeth Bachinsky for the spicy and moving poetry reading and to the Ferry Building staff for all their hard work.

The show at the Ferry Building has given me the opportunity to work on and show new pieces in the “Woodfibre Series”

As some of you my know, I have been working with my grandmother on this series for many years. Through these pieces I have recorded her story as a mother, seamstress, fisherman’s wife and an interned Japanese Canadian. Selected photographs from her collection have been incorporated into mixed media paintings. I have revisited (some with my grandmother) many of the locations in the photographs and have recorded details of the physical changes in the sites and the emotional relationships that were built there.

One of the pieces, “Gumboot Geishas” features a photograph of five ladies outside their homes in the cannery dressed in hairnets, aprons and gumboots. My Gram is in the center of the photograph that was taken in West Vancouver at the Great Northern Cannery. I have documented the painting while it was being made to show the piece from start to finish.

Gumboot Geishas in progress

The finished piece is 36×48 inches
and will be displayed with other pieces
in the series at the SIX show.

About this piece:

Wood explores ties with her Japanese
grandmother while also referencing
the internment of Japanese during
the Second World War and Canada’s
shrinking natural resources.

“SIX” will showcase works by six women artists from Vancouver’s Eastside

Valerie Arntzen
Stefany Hemming
Eri Ishii
Dori Luthy-Harrison
Sharon Petty
Arleigh Wood

Opening reception Tuesday March 4, 6-8pm
featuring poet Elizabeth Bachinsky
artists in also attendance Sat March 8, 2-4pm
exhibition runs March 4 -16, 2008

Ferry Building Gallery
1414 Argyle Ave
West Vancouver BC
at Ambleside Landing
Gallery hours 11-5pm, Tuesday-Sunday

We rang 2008 in with a lush & stormy bang in Hana Maui. Hawaii, what an inspiring destination. I miss it already! Please enjoy a selection of pix from my trip. Ok enough reminiscing, time to get back into the studio and process all of this new tropical imagery!

Seven Sacred Pools, Kipahulu ,Maui

Bamboo Forest, Kipahulu, Maui

Lovely Fungus, Kipahulu, Maui

Banyen Tree, Kipahulu, Maui

Eucalyptus Tree, Hana, Maui

Protea, near Makawao, Maui

Mount Haleakala, Maui

Hiking at Mount Haleakala, Maui

Waipio Valley, Big Island

Kiholo Bay, Big Island

Lush lush lush! Maui

I am fascinated by seahorses. Imagine my glee when I realized that you could visit a seahorse farm and see the little marvels up close. The big selling point on the brochure was that you could touch a seahorse. At first I though this sounded a bit cruel but they explained that this wouldn’t harm the farmed seahorses. We were supposed to pretend our fingers were coral. This farm is doing a great job trying to stop the illegal farming of seahorses.
Seahorse farm, Big Island

Now real horses! Waipio Valley, Big Island

Sea urchins and other curiously coloured creatures, Secret Beach, Maui

Spot Mr turtle, Puako, Big Island

Mahalo for the natural beauty.

New year, new ideas
Arleigh Wood, artist
Kerry Moore, The Province
Published: Thursday, January 10, 2008
The end of every year for Arleigh Wood is jammed with business.

“In the last few months I’m producing, showing and selling my work.”

So when January slips into view, she takes a breath and looks at the year ahead. Wood says she doesn’t make resolutions, rather, “I go back into the studio to refresh myself and think of new ideas.”


Jon Murray, The Province

One of artist Arleigh Wood’s crow images was adopted by the annual Eastside Culture Crawl.

She tries to think about seeds planted earlier in her brain. “I consider whether I can turn them into a new series of pictures.”

Wood became known for a series on birds. It was very successful and one of her crow images, for example, was adopted by the annual Eastside Culture Crawl.

During these late winter months in the studio, she says, “I just like to work and be free. If I can take courses, this is when I do it.”

In the past she has studied photography and has taken classes with individual artists.

Wood also looks at the year behind her to see if she realized her intentions.

“I ask myself if I applied to all those galleries and so on.”

She also looks at her progress with an ongoing work about her grandmother.

“She was interned at Greenwood during the last world war. She is Japanese Canadian, as am I, and we’ve visited places she’s lived and gone through her old photographs. I work with her on my pieces that incorporate her stories.”

And, of course, with the start of every new year she works on the Big Three: “I want to balance work with nutrition and exercise,” Wood laughs. “This is the classic resolution.”

kmoore@png.canwest.com