I’m Stephanie the Intern, nice to meet you.

Being a Petley Jones Intern has its perks. The gallery’s absolutely massive back-room inventory is like Disneyland for a recent Art History graduate like myself. In the last couple of months, I have photographed and touched and labelled more incredible pieces of art than my brain can comprehend. An unexpected perk is the killer workout my arms and legs have been receiving from lifting and hanging and climbing up and down ladders. I was even able to select a couple of pieces to put on display in the gallery. With hours of digging through the collection under my belt, I find that I have become rather taken with abstract representations of landscape. I have become obsessed with Debra Van Tuinen’s encaustics, like Silver Sunset. According to Debra:

“My work is not an exact representation of the landscape. My paintings are meant to capture the emotions and thoughts that the landscape invokes in me and in the viewer as they respond to the energy and spirit in my work.”

Through my education at UBC, I saw the evolution of landscape painting from John Constable to Monet and Cézanne. It is fascinating to work at a place where I can see this kind of evolution within an artistic family, from the dreamy watercolours of uncle Llewellyn to the thickly-applied acrylics of our very own Matt Petley-Jones. I love the colours in Matt’s Spirit’s Edge.

Both of these pieces are currently being exhibited alongside other works from the collection.

I’m looking forward to the South Granville ArtWalk this Saturday. Fifteen art galleries on Granville Street (between 5th and 15th Avenue) are participating in this event, including Petley Jones! If celebrating the Vancouver art scene isn’t enough of a draw, maybe the promise of artist talks, wine and cheese tastings, and other goodies will convince you to stop by. Stay tuned for our thoughts on the event next week!

For more information:

Debra Van Tuinen, Petley Jones Gallery artist page.

Matt Petley-Jones, Petley Jones Gallery artist page.

South Granville ArtWalk.

by Stephanie Matchung