My summer exhibition project is called "Hidden worlds we share", water media paintings of landscapes and birds is up at The Old School House Art Centre, Qualicum Beach until June 22, 2019. I've also installed an exhibit of framed poster prints of the 8 bird paintings at the Sea to Sky Gondola Summit Lodge, which will be up until July 30, 2019.

The folks at the Squamish Environment Society have been a big inspiration and have been supporters of my art for many years - I try to collaborate with them whenever I can. In the S2S poster show, I've included a print out of the SES Bird count list. It blew my mind to discover so many species - 200+ in the Squamish Estuary alone! and to know that we now have an official designation for the Estuary as an IBA (Important Bird Area). I'd like the wider community to know and to share in my own discovery of the "Hidden worlds we share" right here on our doorstep.

Artist Statement - Zoë Evamy

“Hidden worlds, we share” – the Bird Series

My new body of work presently on show at The Old School House Art Center, Qualicum Beach, “Hidden worlds, we share”, explores an ongoing interest in the cyclical movements of tides, seasons and bird migrations around the Squamish Estuary. The Bird Series shown here (at the Sea to Sky Gondola Art Wall) is reproduced from original water media paintings as archival prints on Canson cotton rag paper. Each print has my signature and is framed in a presentation frame with plexiglass.

I'd like to acknowledge my appreciation for the shared knowledge and inspiration provided by the Squamish Environmental Conservation Society. For more information on the 200+ bird varieties found in the Squamish Estuary annually, please refer to the ‘Checklist of Birds’, a downloadable file available on the SECS website.

Through my recent development of this theme, I have shifted perspective from observer/painter of familiar landscape scenery to focus from within the Estuary itself. Walking and sketching outdoors, I take a closer look at the hidden world we share with plant and animal life, such as the energy and movement of wind, tides, erosion, changing river patterns and bird migration. From an unplanned, purely emotive starting point, my initial application of paint is charged with this energy. Brush marks and colour randomly placed, begin to suggest movement, sound and shape, which then become more carefully defined as bird and other natural life forms.

This painting approach mirrors the idea of discovery, identifying and revealing hidden elements, the barely visible and often ignored, the elusive nature of some wildlife and the idea that we have to know something exists before we can miss it after it has gone.

The tiny egg motif in the bottom left corner of each print signifies the vulnerability of fish and bird habitat in the public spaces we share with them.

For more on Zoe, see:

https://www.zevamy.com/
https://www.facebook.com/StudioZedArt/
https://www.instagram.com/studiozedart/