2. Catherine Fraser

Estuary Patterns

The Cowichan Estuary, a special place where I live, meditate, walk and experience gratefulness of being. I am aware of the moods of the place, the changing sifting sands, colours, flora, fauna and vistas. I love the seasons, patterns and rhythms. In front of my home the river patterns change, even since raising the bridges more debris is accumulated in the bay increasing sedimentation. Artworks are created in series with a strong interest in colour, design and trusting in the process through drawing, tracing and painting. I enjoy plein air painting and I love the feeling of the outside elements of the wind, sun, and rain, while challenging it is exhilarating. Depicting new landscapes in different moods and lighting is exciting and worth the special effort.

Catherine has painted professionally since 1983 with art studios in Victoria and the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, BC Canada. She works in oils, acrylic, watercolour, graphite and pastels, photography and mixed media and is constantly exploring and experimenting with new artistic responses to the world around her. Catherine is an accomplished and award-winning artist having exhibited in over 25 one-woman shows, in Canada, US and Europe. Her artwork has been selected into juried shows and she has received many awards. She has BScN, University of Victoria, diploma Art Therapy BC School of Art Therapy and Certificate in Fine Art from Vancouver Island School Of Art and divides her time between careers as an artist and an art therapist.

4. Cher McKittrick

Dancing in the Moonlight

Cher McKittrickk lives in the beautiful rural area of Cobble Hill, on Vancouver Island.  This self-taught artist has explored multiple mediums including (but not limited to) Watercolors, Acrylics, Mixed Media, Hand Built Clay oddities, and Glass.

Her style can be described as eclectic, and she thrives on the exciting possibilities available in every medium.

Cher has opted to no longer post art on Social Media sites, but if you wish to view older posts, look her up on instagram:  @CherMcKittrick

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” – Andy Warhol

6. Elora Wall (Age 10)

Dancing Stream

Elora is an aspiring artist and constant creative. She painted her stormy scene looking out her kitchen window at the green rolling hills and grey skies where she often watches the sparrows play. The stream came dancing into her mind and spilled out onto the scene quite unexpectedly. She now feels a stream is the missing element on the otherwise perfect landscape of her backyard.

8. Will Millar

100,000 Welcomes

Will Millar, as the former leader of The Irish Rovers has now returned to his first creative love of Painting. In this he is a voyager into the Ireland of his youth, portraying the country in the 1950’s. Before glass supermarkets and traffic jams clogged up small villages. Before, as he puts it, “Ireland rushed into the Euro world like a Celtic tiger”. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, Will Millar grew up in a family where music and art were encouraged. His mother supported his first art lessons. He recalls fondly how he used to thin his oil paints by dipping his brush into the glass oil lamp that lit the home, with dinner being eaten at a table strewn with paints and brushes and small unfinished works of art”. His art lessons also included happy days spent learning from an elderly art teacher who lived nearby in a house “full of glorious clutter”, as he writes in the preface of his new Art book, ‘Scenes from my Irish Rovings”. Will used to cut sticks for her fireplace and in return she gave him art lessons. Not an arrangement he cared to share with his neighbourhood tear-aways!

Will Millar’s purpose in painting is meditative, but it is also a basic desire to remember his roots, the Ireland of his youth. The artworks in “Scenes from my Irish Rovings” are paintings of a by-gone era: plough horses, steam trains, hay-raking by hand, gypsy caravans and tinkers (the original Irish Rovers), old girls in their Sunday-best hats playing cards in a pub, the men with their cloth caps and pipes, horse fairs and farmers’ markets, old storytellers and donkeys on the beach, jigs and reels and shepherds with their dogs. All his cherished memories come lovingly to life on his canvas.

10. Pauline Dueck

Give A Finch An Inch & They Take The Whole House

Pauline describes herself as an unapologetic painter of happy art, hoping to create a moment of joy in a world with a growing sense of despair.  Her subjects frequently reflect her agricultural roots and 20-year career as a veterinary technologist, featuring animals and bold florals, often with a whimsical twist. Her intimate association with animals and understanding of their anatomy is reflected in her detailed depictions. She was recently selected as the People’s Choice Artist at the 2024 Cowichan Valley Fine Arts Show, a coveted award which she also won in 2021. She is an active volunteer with the Cowichan Valley Arts Council, curating many of their shows each year. Pauline’s nest box celebrates her fondness for the American Gold Finch, a muse that frequently shows up in her paintings.

12. Coco Jones

The Love Shack

I was born on the unceded territory of the Saugeen people
In what settlers call Southampton Ontario. 
I was born coco.
I was very dark, hairy, smiley and Buddha- like (as mom said).
Hyper aware from my first steps, I remember not liking the smell 
of old people, or the feel of plastic on furniture. (NOW I AM OLD(er)
From my first solids it was evident that I came here for the food. 
Singing in a funeral choir as a child didn’t seem strange until 
I said it out loud to a friend recently, 
but it trained us to be able to witness very hard things, 
and honour them with our voice, to sing for those who could not.
(It’s how I work even now, just with paint.)
I found myself on this coast in the summer of 1990
Deployed here with the navy, and never looked back. 
I followed a boy whom  I loved,  my Rickie, and we had our four children,
Dylan, Jacob, August & Enya Penya.
That I LIVED  to see my grandson Artemus Moon Jones, and my granddaughter Ava Marie Jones 
is a brilliant highlight in my life.
I also need nature, my drums, my Seiðr(s),
running around the forest (with friends)
& my dog Hera.
Music IS life.

14. Shirley Dickie

Bird Nature in 4 Seasons

I wanted something different this year.  Looking around my garden and outdoor space the inspiration of the 4 seasons of the year jumped out at me.  I have painted all 4 images in a somewhat animated style, I thought it would be fun and that the audience may enjoy it too. Each year I appreciate the privilege of participating in this fundraiser.

I was born in Penticton BC and raised on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada.  I am essentially self-taught, though as a young artist I attended various workshops and classes at the Vancouver Art School.  I painted in all types of media practicing such styles as: realism, abstraction, symbolism, and inner intuitive expression.  Going beyond the learning curve of my early work gave me the groundwork for the art I practice today. I create from my inner experience and depend largely on dreams and imagination for ideas and vision.

Now, my painting has become like an abstract thought.  It allows me to enter another world.  It is as if spirit is speaking to me out of that universal connectedness. It calls me to use identifiable images to hook and link people to that same place. Through my painting I am drawn to enter points of view and places in my imagination that are mostly intuitive. My paintings examine things like groups and flocks, movement, feelings, and mystery.  I am as much the medium of expression as the brush, the paint, and the canvas.

16. Victoria Blouin

Petite Hideaway

I chose the colours for this bird box to match the scenery of the marsh and the valley. A recent obsession of mine has been including fungi within my art work. I included little mushrooms & growing vines to create the effect of natural overgrowth. I knew I wanted to add little windows with creatures inside to help give the feeling that the bird house was lived in.

I want someone to look at this box and ask, “who are these creatures?” Or “what have they been up to?” To be able to write their own stories. Channel their inner childlike wonderment.”

Victoria Blouin is a watercolour painter, oil painter, and printmaker from the Cowichan Valley. Her artwork explores themes about nature, fantasy, body positivity, and the human form.

Victoria graduated from Vancouver Island University in 2023, earning her BFA (Bachelor of Arts).  

Her family comes from Montreal, Quebec where she was born in 2001. She was 3 years old when her family moved out west to the Cowichan Valley located on Vancouver Island. Art has always been an important part of her life, an interest passed down on her mother’s side of the family.

18. Karen Severson

Leaves and Stems

After receiving a BFA in printmaking at UVIC. I did a lot of etching and mono-print, eventually moving into painting which I have been doing for thirty-five years. The nest box is painted in acrylics. I thought painting a nest box would be easy but it turned into quite a challenge, but in the end it was fun. I hope some little birds will enjoy raising a family in it.

I was born in Victoria, lived on Vancouver Island most of my life, 30 years in the Cowichan Valley. I am inspired by nature’s beauty here: clouds, the river, trees, animals, birds.

20. Family Collaboration

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Art in the Alley during Saturday Market. I would have a separate table so children and adults can play with the art materials on paper, canvas and today was the crafted bird box donated for Somenos Marsh Fundraiser. So this family of 5 helped me with the project of Bird Box 2. We delighted in conversations, sharing space, and using art materials supplied. It was great fun and loving spending time together on the Bird Box Project for Somenos Marsh. – Catherine Fraser

Painted by Grandma Rutherford painting with acrylic paints, Arle Wakeman, age 4, painting with watercolours, Jenelle Wakeman using watercolours and Siri Wakeman, age 6, using pencils and watercolours.