Some Quintessential BC Art!

When I arrived in Vancouver in 1974, two of my first friends were Jim and Doria Moodie. At the time Jim was Executive Assistant to Vancouver City Manager Lorne Ryan and his best friend Gordon Campbell was Executive Assistant to then Mayor Art Phillips. Jim went on to a very successful career in planning and real estate consulting, while Gordon decided to pursue other activities.

Although no one ever made Jim a Christmas Tree ornament saying he was the best real estate consultant in the world (Doria, a school teacher, often got such ornaments from her students!) his clients and colleagues knew he was very good. Some of his accomplishments included Champlain Heights and the early phases of the Fraser Lands developments. Today, Jim is helping Michael Audain create the Audain Gallery at Whistler. But this post is not about Jim.

Rather, it's about Doria since in recent years, in addition to her community and philanthropic work, and golf, she has taken up painting.  Last week I attended a show of her work at Essentia Vancouver, a WestSide art gallery and....are your ready...bed shop! Learn more about it here http://www.myessentia.com/locations/vancouver

The show is called Viewpoints from Sea to Sky and includes paintings by Doria and three friends, Andrea Moore, Lianne Gulka, and Susie Cipolla, with whom she regularly paints up at Whistler. Their work is very impressive and surprisingly affordable. While each artist has her own style, there is a common thread that runs through the show, perhaps because the four spend a lot of time painting together in a very beautiful Whistler setting. Below are a few of Doria's paintings and Susie's boat.

In writing this post, it is my hope that more people will discover what everyone at the opening thought was some exceptionally good work by relatively new artists. As one person said, it is quintessential westcoast art and the show is aptly named.

The gallery is located at 2144 West 4th Avenue at Arbutus on the south side of the street. The show is well worth the trip, especially if you enjoy west coast art or might like to buy a beautiful painting for yourself, or for someone else this holiday season.
 To see more of their work, go to their websites at http://www.doriamoodie.com,  http://susiecipollaart.com, http://www.liannegulka.com