THE CROSSING

GIBSONS PUBLIC ART GALLERY

JUNE 3RD - JULY 19TH 2010

The most direct way to get from Vancouver to the Sunshine Coast is to cross Howe Sound. It’s a beautiful crossing. Snow topped mountains, islands of forests, rocky beaches, waves reflecting back an ever-changing sky. A rainy sky, a cloudy sky, a sky that breaks open to blue with sunlight, sparkling. In the face of whatever differences we may have as people, we can all agree, at the very least, that the scenery is beautiful.

In “The Crossing,” sixty-five paintings by Stewart Stinson form a continuous image. Canvases from as small as 4” x 4” to as large as 48” x 48” compose a surrounding view, celebrating the water, shoreline, mountains, and sky we find around us on the crossing of the sound. The paintings will be aligned with the cardinal points of the scene, with the northern walls of the gallery depicting northern views, the eastern wall depicting eastern views, etc. Standing in the middle of the gallery will create a distorted painted illusion of standing in the middle of Howe Sound, surrounded by the sea, the shore and the sky.

The trip passes differently for each person. But our surroundings in that passing moment of crossing are something that we all have in common. We share it, for that moment, together. And then the tide goes in and out and we move on. In big and little ways, everything changes. The landscape, once whole, fragments into broken pieces of memory, split up and divided into souvenir snapshots of the coastal seascape we pass through on our way to wherever it happens to be that we’re going.

Partial proceeds from all exhibit sales will help fund the Gibsons Public Art Gallery, a non-profit community arts organization. The gallery is located at 287 Gower Point Road, Gibsons.

OPENING RECEPTION:  JUNE 5TH, 2-4PM

GALLERY PAINTING SESSION: JULY 3RD, 1-4PM

ALL ARE WELCOME!