One of the newest members of the Art 10 collective will be featured in her first exhibit at the Nanaimo North Town Centre gallery this month.
According to a release, Cheryl Hopkins has created art with watercolours, pen and ink for nearly half a century, and has had a pencil and sketch pad nearby for as long as she can remember.
The Port Alberni-born artist has spent most of her life on Vancouver Island, and while working for the provincial government in the ’80s, penned and inked illustrations of Vancouver Island marmots and burrowing owls. Following a move to Gabriola Island in the ’90s, Hopkins took up watercolour painting.
Just like her grandmother, who was also an artist and her inspiration, flowers are Hopkins’s favourite subject to paint. She is also inspired when kayaking on the ocean or when hiking through forests.
Although watercolours are a new foray for Hopkins, she has also recently started to paint in abstract with fluid acrylics. Colours are layered on canvas and manipulated with palette knives and stretched to “become something to brighten any space.”
“I love doing tight, detailed work but wanted to try to loosen my style, so I explored some YouTube videos on acrylic pouring,” said Hopkins in the release. “I love the science part of this form of art and found it fascinating – you can only control certain aspects of a painting and waiting for the paint to finish doing its magic is so exciting.”
Over the course of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the artist also began painting mandalas on rocks and flowers on canvas, both in acrylic and watercolours.
Hopkins’s work can be viewed at the Art 10 Gallery until Jan. 31 during mall hours.
READ MORE: Potters celebrate clay in latest exhibit at Nanaimo’s Art 10 Gallery
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter