BY PATRICIA BANKS
Vancouver Island artists Patricia Mansell, Patricia Banks and Mary Jane Jessen said they are excited to celebrate with Artists for Conservation at its annual fundraising event.
Artists for Conservation, an international not-for-profit organization, supports wildlife and habitat conservation, and environmental education through art that celebrates nature.
Each artist’s work was selected for exhibition at this year’s festival, which will be held at Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3.
The three artists are passionate about the natural world and they help protect and support conservation through education and their artwork.
Originally from England, Mansell now lives in Nanaimo.
She paints realistic wildlife in acrylic and has developed her style through research, travel and photographing animals in their habitat.
A strength of wildlife art is its ability to tell stories, she said.
Something unique about an animal inspires Mansell to paint. She strives to bring out the character of each animal. Mansell portrays endangered animals to raise awareness of how close we are to losing them. Mansell said she feels they take her out of the everyday, into a magical land where she can let her heart and soul shine through her paintings. For more information, please go to www.patriciamansell.ca.
Banks lives in Nanaimo and creates oil and acrylic landscape paintings. Each painting begins directly in nature.
She is intrigued by the balance between strength and fragility in nature. Banks said she tries to stimulate viewers to pause and reflect, to feel as if they are there, in the moment. Banks also shares her enthusiasm as a nature interpreter at Morrell Nature Sanctuary, encouraging others to admire and respect nature’s ecosystems.
For more information on Banks, please go to www.patriciabanks.ca.
Jessen resides on Gabriola Island. Awareness and protection of the environment motivates her creativity.
On her travels, she has photographed many native species of birds, animals and reptiles.
Jessen said she aims to enlighten the viewer to social, political and environmental issues of endangered species.
She teaches drawing at Gabriola Elementary in its after-school art club.
Her artistic process is based on thoughts, ideas and feelings related to issues and concerns about the environment.
She interprets these ideas with a variety of mediums on different painting surfaces. For more information, go to www.maryjanejessen.com.
For more information, please go to www.artistsforconservation.org.
Patricia Banks is a writer and Nanaimo artist.