Dave Currie’s technique is not quite pointillism (neo-impressionist painting using tiny dots of various pure colours) but if you mention the fisherman artist who does the dot paintings, people in the corridor will know you are speaking about his art. Currie’s aim is to use these layered, adjacent circles of colour, which become blended in the viewer’s eye, to achieve a greater degree of luminosity and brilliance of colour in his British Columbia-inspired acrylic paintings and prints.
Currie has created art during his entire life but started painting acrylic on canvas only 15 years ago. Back then he was in an art gallery in Canmore, Alberta looking at some pieces and he said to himself, “I can do that.”
Now a full-time artist and part-time (but very passionate) fly fisherman, Currie’s broad artistic inspirations are from his many adventures fishing for steelhead and trout in B.C.’s rivers and lakes. He uses blues and purples to create the local ocean and a variety of greens for the West Coast rainforests for graphic landscape mosaics with a modern folk-art twist.
Currie’s work has made a distinctive evolution over time. He initially started with using graphic black squares as a background and then moved on to a more organic feel with black circles and eventually introduced colour. He has worked on developing better contrast, subject matter and use of colour and now uses whimsical multi-coloured circles over an eye-catching bold background which he refers to as an effect that is ‘soothing to the soul.’
Unlike many artists that use photographic reference, Currie’s creative process starts with internal creativity. He says, “Every painting I do comes out of my head. I can visualize and have a good feel for how it will turn out. But really I now know after adding the third colour into the mix, this is where I let the painting create itself.”
He refers to the first colour as the background, the second as the circle, the third as the dot of paint. Maybe it’s not pointillist but at least dotilist.
Having spent half of his life growing up on the Pacific Ocean and the other half living in the coastal mountains of B.C., Currie is a true Canadian West Coast artist. See more at www.currieartworks.com.
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In the cases at the gallery this month is a sampling of the Foyer Gallery artisans’ group show. A perfect collection and example of the art work from 15 participants in our first annual Artisan Holiday Celebration. This variety of wares will be on display for the month of December and don’t miss the exciting sale and celebration event, which will be held Dec. 5 (1-4 p.m.), Dec. 6 (10 a.m.-4 p.m.), Dec. 7 (10 a.m.-3 p.m.) in the library. There will be live music, art demos, art raffles, baking and more. Patrons are invited to shop for local handmade pottery, jewelry, gifts, small paintings, art cards, slippers, felted hats, bags and more. Stop by for a coffee and a treat and join in on the fun. It’s a family affair.
Meet the artists all weekend long featuring three generations of the Hoff family (Freda Hoff, Andrea and her daughter Helena), Jane Keyes and her daughter Ally Campbell, Lynsey Paterson with daughter Molly, Linda Wagner and her daughter-in-law Alli Brumwell. Also presented will be artists Judy McQuinn, Meghan McCrone of Muddy Marvels Pottery, Toby Jaxon, Nicole Lanteigne and Paul Li with art demonstrations by Dave Currie, Nalidsa Sukprasert, Fran Solar and Brumwell. Get into the spirit of the holidays with musical performances by The Larson Sisters, Carolyn Grass & Friends and Sofie Hill’s fun sets combining Celtic tunes with traditional Christmas songs.
