YQQ Arts Collection

I am an interdisciplinary visual artist originally from Quebec, now proudly living and creating in the Comox Valley. My practice spans fine art oil painting, sculpture, and multi-sensory installations, bridging the objective reality of physical materials with deeper philosophical truths. Drawing from Jungian psychology and sacred geometry, my work maps the inner architectures of the psyche. I merge traditional methodologies, like lapis lazuli glazing, with modern metalwork and 3D printing. I also frequently incorporate earth elements and custom botanical scents into my pieces, an approach recently shared during my solo exhibition, Aeon of the Black Sun, at the Comox Valley Art Gallery. By presenting my work in this local transit space, I hope to offer travelers a moment of atmospheric pause; an invitation to experience tangible beauty while reflecting on the profound, unseen forces shaping our shared human journey.

Anouk Hartwell is a self taught artist working in the Comox Valley. Her love for nature can be felt in vast landscapes, textured mountains, diverse oceans, and multi-hued skylines based mainly on Vancouver Island. Unique perspectives and vivid acrylic colours blend together to draw attention to fine details in her semi-realism paintings.

I am a photographer and painter living on Vancouver Island.

Collage of various "ghost murals" in the exchange district in Winnipeg, MB. I am exploring the creation of work by collaging digital photographic prints with Acrylic painting.

Bri Vandyke is a Vancouver Island based fine art photographer whose work is rooted in the ocean, wild places, and the emotional pull of nature. She creates painterly photographic pieces that hold movement, light, and memory in a single frame. Her practice is guided by feeling over perfection and by a deep connection to the coast as a place of return, reflection, and creative freedom. She is drawn to the way water, weather, light, and movement can shift how a place feels from one moment to the next. Through her photography, Bri explores presence, change, and the quiet ways we reconnect with ourselves through nature. Her work is about slowing down, paying attention, and creating space for the feelings that are often harder to put into words. She hopes the work gives people a moment to pause, look longer, and feel something familiar in it.

I am a local textile and fibre artist who creates wool rugs and wall pieces. All my pieces are fabricated from start to finish in my home studio using 100% New Zealand wool and custom made frames. Inspiration comes from the natural world around me as well as other artistic influences. I also do custom orders.

Cara Leanne is drawn to bright, bold colour because it feels like joy made visible. Her artwork celebrates the small moments that brighten your day, inspired by blooming flowers, peaceful ocean views, hummingbirds and even quirky chickens. Look closely and you�ll see her paintings are created with layers of acrylic paint and hand-painted, hand-torn collage. Cara is a mixed media artist from the Comox Valley.

Cesar is a Colombian artist based in the Comox Valley, where he has lived for the past five years. He studied film, sociology, and completed a master�s degree in Communication and Education in Argentina. His background includes work on music videos, photo-reportage projects, and short films, including experience as an assistant director in Colombia. Drawing on his background in sociology and communication, he approaches photography not as a faithful copy of reality, but as a window into a perspective shaped by history, aesthetics, and emotion. His current practice explores Vancouver Island through contemplation, memory, migration, and the ways landscapes, silence, distance, and small presences can evoke belonging, displacement, and the reconstruction of memory.

In a fast-paced and uncertain world, my paintings offer a pause�an opportunity to reconnect with stillness and the quiet beauty of everyday life. Working primarily in acrylic, I paint figures I am instinctively drawn to, whether encountered in passing or known to me personally. I am interested in the gestures, postures, and fleeting moments that catch my eye. By isolating these figures against different backgrounds, I explore the feeling and atmosphere of a particular moment, leaving space for the viewer�s own imagination and interpretation.

As a child I was called a polymath. I have worked in many mediums: architecture, music and fine arts over my lifetime. I enjoy printmaking, photography, painting, silver jewelry, ceramics, textiles, handmade books and leather work. I am the co-owner of the Swan Road Gallery at Flowing Art Studio on Denman Island with Tashi Draper. I am a member of The Playwrights Guild of Canada and an award winning playwright. I have been a member of the L.A. Screen Actors Guild, The Actors Studio L.A., The Beverley Hills Playhouse, The Rachel Rosenthal Company, Artistic Director of the three-day Stardust Theatre Festival. I have exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery, The National Film Board of Canada, and many other places around the world and my work is included in many books and collections. I also produce film for the internet and compose my own music in my home studio.

David started drawing at a young age and began a serious interest in photography while still in grade school. He began painting in acrylics and oils about twenty-five years ago and more recently has been exploring the world of printmaking. David has taken art related courses and workshops from many talented instructors in Canada, the UK, USA and France. David's artistic interests are eclectic. Working in various media and in a realist manner he explores the areas of urban and natural landscape with a strong interest in architecture, trees and the human figure. He has received arts grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. David's art is included in the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and many private collections.

Diana Kolpak is a story-teller who uses photography, poetry, music and theatre as her media to create work that merges artistic disciplines in unexpected ways. Published works include Postcards to Unknown Lovers � a collection of poems and photos, the children's book Starfall; the play Bedtime Stories, and poems and photographs in several online magazines and the upcoming ekphrastic poetry anthology The Metaphor Tree. Her current theatrical work, BLUE, is an interactive musical odyssey through the ocean of love guided by former-mermaid-turned-lounge-singer Sally Siren. Diana was the first Canadian invited to perform at Clownin, Vienna's international festival of women clowns, and is also one-half of the musical duo The Ookoolaydeez.

I am an illustrator, designer and educator with over 25 years of experience whose evocative, conceptually driven imagery appears in some of today's most influential publications. My love of the outdoors directly influences my work by bringing together drawing and photography to create boldly sublime, otherworldly, and eye-catching art with a conceptual twist. My current work focuses on landscapes with fragmented elements that evoke ideas of wonder and strangeness in the face of the natural world. My clients include Outside, Audi, TAXI, The Globe & Mail, Climbing Magazine, The New York Times, Penguin Books, Runner's World, The Economist, Spafax, Bloomberg, Backpacker, &Warren Miller, among many others. My work has received over 40 awards by Communication Arts, American Illustration, Society of Newspaper Designers, 3�3, Applied Arts, PRINT, Alberta Magazine Awards, Cannes, National Magazine Awards, and The Society of Illustrators NY & LA.

Elaine Smith is an abstract artist based in British Columbia's scenic Comox Valley. She creates expressive, one-of-a-kind artwork utilizing a dynamic combination of acrylic paint, mixed media, and original collage. Deeply influenced by the organic complexity of the natural world and the quirkiness of human nature, she strives to combine these in her work. Elaine builds layered compositions driven by a fascination with colour, shape, and form. Her process balances spontaneous intuition with structured design, resulting in vibrant pieces that invite the viewer's curiosity and personal interpretation.

Gabriella Wong Hern�ndez is a Colombian/Canadian artist based on the unceded traditional territory of the K'�moks First Nation. Her multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, photography, painting, and mixed media. Her work explores identity, migration, womanhood, memory, and the experiences of navigating cultural belonging between Colombia and Canada.

Born and raised on Salt Spring Island, I am a painter working in oil, acrylic and watercolour. I have a BFA in Visual Arts from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design (now Emily Carr University). Having settled in Cumberland, surrounded by forest and birds, I'm naturally drawn to outdoor settings as a basis for my work. I work from photographs that aren�t beautiful to begin with. I like to exploit the imperfections in an image, letting them dictate how each painting develops. My process is slow, building up layers of colour, line and texture to bring the surface of the picture to life.

I am a contemporary landscape painter with a passion for trees. I have been working as a full time painter for 14 years and enjoy welcoming the public to my studio gallery in Tintown on Saturdays. With my work, I seek to create art and art experiences that inspire a connection to Nature and remind the viewer of their own awe inspiring moments in the natural world. I work 'en plein air' and in the studio with various drawing and painting materials. My main media is oil paint mixed with cold wax medium. I love the saturation of the pigments in oil paint and the cold wax medium offers wonderful texture and a matte finish which appeals to me.

Ian Fry was born and raised in Scotland and attended Glasgow School of art, graduating in illustration and design. He worked as a book, cover art, mural and advertising artist in Scotland and later, in London. In 1985 he moved to Vancouver and worked in corporate advertising, television and book illustration, before moving to Bowen Island and concentrating on painting there. Subjects involving the natural world in it�s diversity and human connections are closest to his heart. His work has been featured at galleries in Vancouver, Whistler, Bowen Island and in Glasgow Scotland. His paintings have been collected in Canada, the U.S � where he worked on a 1500 ft 2 mural in Dallas, Texas.- and Israel and Germany. He now lives in the Comox Valley on beautiful Vancouver Island.

Jenny is a graduate of Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr),and a long-term Comox Valley resident. Initially, she used her creativity to raise a family and run Laughing Oyster Bookshop. She subsequently used that creativity to explore abstract art in acrylics, mixed media and collage. As a former potter, she gravitates towards 3D, building and subtracting layers of texture and colour. Exploring contrast between hard geometric and soft organic shapes and lines, she responds intuitively, asking �what if?" Balancing control and spontaneity, creates a thoughtful dialogue, both within the painting, and with the viewer. Connecting with other creatives has greatly contributed to exploration of various techniques.

I am a Comox‑based painter exploring colour, texture, and light through mixed media � primarily acrylics and oil pastels. My landscapes and seascapes are shaped by the places that feel like home: the Comox Valley, the Pacific Northwest, and the English countryside where I grew up. A recent trip through Scandinavia � especially Denmark's quiet, open horizons � also influence the calm spaciousness in my work. I paint intuitively, building layered, tactile pieces that evolve through feeling rather than strict reference. Music is always part of my process, and lyrics or moods often inspire both the direction and titles of my paintings. Painting is my escape from a full‑time career in a different field. It provides me with a place to unwind and reconnect.

Joanne Nemeth was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. Shortly after retiring from a career as a petroleum engineer, she enthusiastically took up the practice of art as a hobby. She took many art classes and workshops, trying out a variety of media and techniques. Her original explorations of colour were with oil pastels and watercolours. Joanne and her husband and their three orange tabby cats moved to Qualicum Beach in 2016. In 2018, another artist introduced Joanne to painting acrylic dots on rocks and she was smitten. Painting mandalas on rocks led to dot painting trees, landscapes and local wildlife on canvas. A pointillist was born! Joanne has shown her work in shows and galleries all over Vancouver Island and beyond. Joanne is a Associate member (AFCA) of the Federation of Canadian Artists.

Julie Sabey's life has been shaped by a childhood spent in Yellowknife. During her formative years, she was part of the arts and culture scenes in Winnipeg and Vancouver. Her professional life as a writer and director meant her award-winning videos and campaigns were produced and viewed on screens; in 2020, she began to make things she could hold in her hands. She tries to make sense of the world with paint.

I am an emerging Comox artist. Painting has given me a new way to avoid meditating. My primary medium is soft pastel. Often I begin with an underpainting of complimentary or contrasting colours which I spray with isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol dissolves the pastel pigment and permanently bonds it to the paper. Once dry, I begin to apply layer upon layer of pastel, allowing the underpainting to show through in places. A single painting can have 30 or more layers. Pastels must be framed under glass. If archival materials are used, the painting will retain its true colour and vibrancy for centuries. Degas is a famous Old Master who used pastel to paint ballerinas. All of my work is done with archival material.

Laurena Evalina is an artist living and working on Sihaltayich (Denman Island) which is located in the Traditional Territory of the Pentl'ach, represented by both the K'�moks and Qualicum First Nations. The island life has shaped her love and respect for the natural world, which is both a source of inspiration and a recurring theme in her art. Working in many mediums, but most engaged in painting, she uses art as a tool for healing, as a form of play, and as a way to communicate knowledge about the natural world and the need for its preservation. She is a graduate of the Fine Arts Program at North Island College.

My move to the Comox Valley a decade ago opened a door to excitedly explore my right brain after a long career in medicine. I draw immense inspiration from the dramatic world surrounding me.

My acrylic and mixed media paintings are also deeply influenced by my internal emotional landscape. Lately my work has happily morphed from abstracted landscapes to figurative or to nonobjective abstraction, back and forth. I am learning to pay minimal attention to the rigid concept of "style," choosing instead to let internal reflection play out freely.

I am currently working on a series of figurative abstracts triggered by old family photos, exploring the fickle nature of memory and the stories we tell ourselves. My artwork is layered in complexity and people see what they need to see in my abstract forms. Connection through creativity transforms my world; I deeply hope this work enriches theirs.

I currently work out of Studio 211 in Courtenay with 4 other artists. I work predominantly in oil and enjoy creating to find my own unique style. Painting landscapes has been my main theme in the last 5 years and that is where I have learned to execute bigger paintings. Learning to paint was a demanding exercise, physically, mentally and spiritually. I was self taught and began in my 50s and have felt fortunate to have met and learned from many devoted creatives here in the valley. Composition, colour and balance are important aspects of my work. My work can be found at Studio 211, 2270 Cliffe (by appointment), and at Royston Roasting Company 3904 S Island Hwy, Royston BC.

I'm a primarily self-taught artist living on Vancouver Island. I work mainly in acrylics but have also used watercolours. I strive to paint nature that carries emotion to the viewer, so that one can see the beauty as well as the fragility.

Mads Elia is a multi disciplinary artist and educator, calling the unceded Comox Valley home for the past 15 years. Mads works with drawing and collage to create irreverent childlike marks and repetitive fluid shapes purely for the love of the game and sometimes to process the inevitable trauma of being a human animal on a floating rock in space. If you need a laugh or want to zone out with some weird shapes you are in the right place. Mads is currently working on making their own clothes, collaging all their old photos and teaching grade one up the hill at Brooklyn Elementary.

Melanie Davies is a Comox Valley based artist working primarily in painting and mixed media. Her work combines expressive figuration, still life, and symbolic imagery to explore identity, emotion, and the strangeness beneath ordinary life. Drawn to intuitive processes, distressed surfaces, and unexpected shifts in colour and scale, she balances recognizable forms with ambiguity and experimentation. Melanie holds a Fine Arts Diploma from North Island College and continues to develop her practice from Courtenay studio.

Michelle Nyberg (she/her) is a visual artist and teacher of online art classes, known for her joyful, impressionistic paintings in acrylic and mixed media. She draws inspiration from nature, with a particular focus on the gardens, forests, and beaches of Hornby Island, where she has lived for over 25 years. She has exhibited in solo shows on Hornby Island and Vancouver Island, as well as participating in various group shows in British Columbia and online. Her paintings have brought joyful expression to collectors� walls in Canada, the United States, Europe, and New Zealand.

I am a graduate from the North Island College Fine Art Diploma program and am continuing towards my degree in Visual Arts at Vancouver Island University. My passion is for landscape, figurative and abstract painting and drawing, along with ceramics. I was born and raised on Vancouver Island and have lived here in the Comox Valley for the last 33 years. I am inspired by forest walks and time at the lakes, rivers and oceans. This painting, Coming into Harbour, is taken from a memory of coming into harbour at Port Alice, Vancouver Island and is an expression of my love for the North Island where I was raised.

Nate Schmold is a Vancouver Island multidisciplinary artist whose restless imagination finds its way into paintings, illustrations, music, games and felted "Pet Mutants."

Working under his creative label 3030, he builds strange worlds where humour and curiosity open the door to something deeper. His work invites people to explore, experiment and discover what happens when expectations get turned sideways. Across more than 20 albums, numerous commercial video games, murals and theatre sound design, Nate treats each medium as another way to connect.

Whether making something to look at, listen to or play with, he leaves room for surprise and for the audience to become part of the experience. Through whimsy and absurdity, Nate offers a constructive response to a culture of anxiety and toxicity: opportunities to breathe, let your guard down, feel connected and follow your inner weirdo into unfamiliar territory, with less fear and a little more curiosity.

Since retiring in 2020 from a graphic design career in the Comox Valley I've refocused my creativity to landscape painting in acrylics and oils. My inspiration is drawn primarily from scenes in the Comox Valley and Vancouver Island's west coast. I try to catch the 'magic moments' that make our home so special through the delicate use of colour, light and brushstrokes. As a charter member of the Federation of Canadian Artists I continue to learn from noted artists to further develop my painting skills, including a recent five day workshop with Mike Svob, who is heavily influenced by the Group of Seven and Robert Genn, artists that are my inspiration as well.

I currently work with acrylic pallet-knife paintings, although I have also worked with regular and oil pastel quite a bit. My main subjects tend to be landscapes � specifically local and coastal, although I am trying to explore other themes as well. I am a self-taught artist who is absolutely in love with the colour and textures of the Comox Valley sky, ocean, forest and fields. This environment never fails to inspire me.

Scott Bertram is an abstract painter whose practice centres around ideas of improvisation, finding meaning within unintended stimuli, and playing with the dynamics of perception. Scott Bertram has been based in the Comox Valley since 2014.

He has a BFA from the University of British Columbia Okanagan and an MFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, NS. He was a finalist in the 2010 RBC Canadian Painting Competition and has received many other awards including funding from the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

His paintings have been shown in solo and group exhibitions across Canada as well as in the USA, Australia, Germany, Mexico, and the UK.

Scott Bertram is an abstract painter whose practice centres around ideas of improvisation, finding meaning within unintended stimuli, and playing with the dynamics of perception. Scott Bertram has been based in the Comox Valley since 2014. He has a BFA from the University of British Columbia Okanagan and an MFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, NS. He was a finalist in the 2010 RBC Canadian Painting Competition and has received many other awards including funding from the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. His paintings have been shown in solo and group exhibitions across Canada as well as in the USA, Australia, Germany, Mexico, and the UK.

The Hare has been present in my work for the past 5 or so years and this painting felt like a culmination of time spent working with the folkloric archetype of the Hare as shapeshifter, specifically the Celtic story of Cailleach (divine Hag) who could transform herself into a Hare and bring about the cycle of death and eventual renewal. Much of my work is centred around cycles, aging, death, rebirth, and archetypal folklore. I am currently working with paper collage in a series exploring lunar cycles and grief.

Summer Scott is a Canadian artist and illustrator whose work moves across drawing, painting, and collage. Vivid and playful, her paintings and drawings are inspired by the cyclical movements of nature, illuminated manuscripts, cathedrals, and patterns of all sorts. Summer's layered work explores the intersection between myth and imagination � conjuring atmospheric dreamscapes rooted in animism, symbolism, and interconnectedness.

Sylwia Gustyn is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Poland. She spent her early years in Windsor, Ontario, where she began exhibiting her paintings in local galleries and alternative spaces. After finding her way to the Comox Valley 26 years ago, she obtained a Graphic Design diploma from North Island College and completed a Bachelor's Degree through Emily Carr University, where she was awarded the Governor General's Academic Medal. Her work explores liminal spaces and oscillates between stark minimalism and chaotic overlays of texture and colour. Informed by world history, science, the occult and mythology, her practice distills complex narratives into writings, images and symbols left to "air out" atop painterly, abstracted scapes. Works are often revisited and transformed over years or even decades, becoming living records of their own passage through time, accumulating and shedding meaning with each new visitation.

A felt sensation of the wind expanding beyond what we can see and hear�following the undercurrents of the Ocean and Her aliveness to shore. In my studio practice, I continue to explore process-based works. The methodology of play and experimentation stays the same, though the mediums and dimensions change. I'm currently working on a series of 32 birch panel works (12 x 12) and deepening my understanding of woodstaining and inks as painterly techniques.

Taryn Goodwin (BFA) is an abstract painter and surface pattern designer located in Comox, British Columbia. In the studio, their ongoing creative process often takes several playful paths at once, celebrating the joy and whimsy of working with different materials and techniques. Always on the edge of excitement to see what comes next. Visiting the Island or already call it home, come by the art studio for a gallery tour to see more available work for sale.

I carved this print to celebrate this tiny hummingbird that visits our pond when the dragonflies search for bugs above the lily pond. The carved lines depict the motion of the water and the flight lines of the Rufus hummingbird. The print is heavily embossed. I continue to improve my printing technique using my hand built etching press to maximize the rich blacks and to maintain the fine detail of the carved lines to accentuate the motion of the birds and water. I am currently carving more birds for the bird print series. I love birds. Birding has been my passion my whole life. When I broke my knee two years ago, I was confined for months. I began Lino carving birds and their movements in flight to feel free. I realized I love carving. The challenge of creating a visual representation of the birds in flight as art thrills me. Being self-taught in printmaking, I constantly learn and improve my skills to best convey the beauty of each bird in flight. By carving away the surface, I use those carved lines to show motion. The challenge is to display the power of flight and at the same time the bird�s delicate nature. During the printing process, I emboss the paper with the flight lines of the birds to display the movement I desire. I print in black and white and design each print to enhance the graphic quality of the image.

"In the Rain, Hope Blooms" explores optimism and the search for glimmers when the storms of life persist. The work is about finding beauty within turmoil and holding onto hope when everything feels like it is falling apart. Through expressive mark-making, color, and freedom, I allowed intuition to guide the process rather than trying to control the outcome. The painting became a way of feeling into the experience, allowing emotion and instinct to lead, and finding moments of light within the storm. Thalita Angelika Forray is a multidisciplinary artist and author who uses creativity to explore her inner world, make sense of life experiences, and question what it means to be human in this age. She is drawn to depth, transformation, healing, and the complexities of life. Her work is a way of questioning, feeling, and discovering what lies beneath the surface. Nature, healing, personal experience, and the world around her all influence her art practice. She sees creativity as a powerful way to process, understand, and transform what we experience. Currently, she is exploring color, expressive strokes, and an intuitive approach, allowing each work to unfold freely.

I continue to explore the landscape as memory rather than place. Through layers of texture, mark-making and abstraction, recognizable forms dissolve. By leaving space for ambiguity, I invite viewers to discover their own narrative within the landscape. Wendy Morosoff Smith is a Canadian painter and printmaker whose work explores and reflects the spiritual aspect of her environment. Blending abstraction and landscape symbolism with the study of light and space, Wendy creates meditations on place, time, the elements, memory and perception. Her luminous and richly textured images provide a new perspective to the landscape. Wendy studied printmaking at the Santa Reparata Institute in Florence, Italy in 1990, and furthered her studies at the Emily Carr University in Vancouver. She lives in the Comox Valley, painting, printmaking and teaching workshops in her studio overlooking the Salish Sea. Wendy's artwork has been collected and exhibited extensively in Canada and abroad. Her pieces can be found in many private and public collections