Qathet Regional District, a region located in British Columbia, recently held an exhibit featuring the artwork of local artists. The exhibit showcased a variety of works from a number of different artistic mediums, including paintings, photography, and sculpture. Over the course of the evening, attendees were able to view and purchase the artwork, as well as enjoy live music and refreshments. The event was a success and attendees were able to support local art and culture in the region.
For the past four months, local but internationally acclaimed artist Meghan Hildebrand has been working full-time on a collection of paintings with the name like lightning! at her studio on Willingdon Avenue.
The series of 14 pieces, some of which are very large, is scheduled to be shipped to Winnipeg for her solo show at Mayberry Fine Art next May.
Before the pieces travel across the country this weekend, the public will have the opportunity to see the original collection at Hildebrand’s art presentation.
“I’ve been in town for 19 years and this is my third year at this studio location,” Hildebrand said. “Now that my studio is out of the house, I’m so excited to be able to share my work with the local community before it goes out into the world.”
The artist’s work reacts to her previous one.
“My last series focused on coasts and the makeshift communities that develop in remote coastal locations; I wanted to continue this exploration, but I craved bigger work and more abstraction,” she said. “I wanted images that can be seen from a distance, where the focus is less on detail and more on impact. I used a zigzag motif, like lighting, to start my compositions. The zigzag compositions ensure that the viewer’s eyes move actively across the painting.”
Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, she then traveled to the East Coast to attend Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, then West, to Nelson BC where she studied at the Kootenay School of the Arts.
Hildebrand and her husband Tony moved to the Qathet region in 2004 for their honeymoon.
“It was a nice and affordable place to live where I could paint full time,” she said. “That’s exactly what it was.”
Prolific and evolving, her work can be seen in coffee houses, art galleries, homes and restaurants throughout the Qathet region.
“I love the look of collage and it’s a style I’m trying to achieve with my images.”
Hildebrand does not deny that the stay on the west coast influenced her work.
“No matter how a painting begins, it always becomes a painting of the coast or the forest or both,” she said.
In the like lightning! series uses Hildebrand painter’s tape, “which allows me to create uniquely patterned areas that are sometimes very loosely painted, and lock them in exactly where I want them.”
She is impressed by the participation in arts events in the area and admits that many artists find it difficult to make a living.
“I have an urge to create, it keeps me going,” she added. “Making a living as a painter is a serious hustle; it’s a full-time job, plus.”
She said living in the Qathet regional unit has allowed her to have a work-life balance.
“I can leave my studio and be in the woods or on the beach in five minutes and come back refreshed,” she added.
Hildebrand is hosting an open house at 4624A Willingdon Avenue on Saturday February 11 from 12pm to 4pm where visitors can see the 14 plays.
If individuals and groups wish to avoid a crowd, they can arrange private viewings on Sunday 12 February. For more information, visit Hildebrand’s Facebook page or website at meghanhildebrand.com.
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