Feeling blessed to live in this beautiful part of the world, Bob Brant presents the Wonders of Salmon, Forest & Nature in photography on metal and acrylic face mount, exhibited on the walls in The Foyer Gallery.
With inspiration ever-present, Brant is rarely without a camera close at hand and loves the flexibility and immediacy of digital photography. His wide range of subject matter includes enviro-scapes, street photography, urban landscapes, people and sales images.
This new exhibit, ArtWalks Through the Forest, is part of the month-long Squamish ArtWalk 2017, an annual event featuring local artists and artisans throughout the district until the end of September.
Brant takes advantage of the chance encounter, capturing serendipitous moments in nature, revealing the special magic of the setting.
“While walking a local trail and coming across a salmon-spawning stream, I was struck by the incredible scene before me,” says Brant. He was transfixed by the salmon, as they valiantly maneuvered against the current.
Brant became mesmerized by the ripples in the stream’s current, conscientiously observing how nature had precisely provided the salmon with ideal camouflage in the rocks of the streambed.
“I couldn’t help but reflect on the tremendous effort the salmon made as they took this return journey and the important impact spawning salmon have on our eco-system,” he said.
Brant took this opportunity to develop a series of photographic images – salmon, mutually abstracted in their collective ecological disguise.
He has been involved in photography for many years. Early on, he taught photography classes and photographed weddings, events and other special occasions. Later, family life shifted his focus (excuse the pun) but photography has always remained a passion.
As with so many creative people, Brant continues on his quest to explore, discover, perfect and convey his artistic voice through photography.
Pottery on purpose
Ceramic artist Lisa Elbertsen doesn’t want her pottery to sit on a shelf collecting dust. In the cases, she presents Pottery on Purpose, turning chunks of clay into multi-use 3D objects such as mugs, plates, bowls and vases. Elbertsen finds solitude in the forest, extracting inspiration for her simple designs, tactile textures and even the colours of her glazes – mainly blues and greens.
When Elbertsen first started doing pottery she was lured by the potter’s wheel and trying to figure out what people like. Now she has learned to have fun, trust her instincts and “play” with clay for the simple pleasure of creating – providing an outlet, an escape from the busyness of everyday life.
“It cleanses my soul and keeps me grounded,” she said. “I quickly learned that me and the wheel do not get along and I much prefer hand-building. I start with a single slab of rolled out clay. I then add texture to the clay and cut out my pieces from templates I have been developing over the years.”
Living in North Vancouver in the ’90s, Elbertsen dabbled sporadically with clay but it wasn’t until she moved to Squamish in 2003 that her creativity really started to flourish. A few years later she set up a make-shift studio in her garage equipped with a wheel, a kiln and homemade glazes. Then in 2010, she made the big commitment to have a real studio built on her property, complete with heat and big windows providing lots of natural light. Now Elbertsen has aspirations to purchase a larger kiln so that she can make even bigger beautiful and functional pieces.
- Toby Jaxon is the curator of The Foyer Gallery, located in the Squamish Public Library
