Canadian Artists at Pouch Cove

Exploring Artistic Inspiration: 15 Canadian Artists at Pouch Cove

As I prepare to embark on a journey to Newfoundland, Canada, a place known for welcoming the first rays of sunlight in the country, I find myself reflecting on the archives of Canadian artists who have been fortunate to experience the creative haven provided by the Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland.

Founded in 1990 by James Baird and officially incorporated in 1997, the Pouch Cove Foundation has served as a retreat for over a thousand visiting artists from all corners of the globe. Nestled on the Northern Avalon Peninsula in the picturesque province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, this residency has played host to not only renowned Canadian visual artists but also writers and musicians. As I meticulously plan, prepare, and pack for this upcoming adventure, I eagerly anticipate the artistic exploration that awaits me on the east coast of Canada, which will be a world apart from my usual surroundings on Vancouver Island.

Aerial View Pouch Cove, Newfoundland

In addition to the residency, the Pouch Cove Foundation is also home to a unique contemporary art gallery. The James Baird Gallery is an art gallery located in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It was founded in 1989 as a regional gallery on the East Coast of Canada. The gallery has developed a solid base of national and international artists through its intimate connection to an artist residency program. The gallery is housed in the totally renovated Pouch Cove Elementary School. The gallery has curated hundreds of exhibitions over almost thirty years at its facilities in Newfoundland and also at public, commercial, and pop-up spaces as well as art fairs across America and Europe. The gallery is focused on contemporary painting in its many forms and lives by the golden rule – That You Should Only Buy What You Love.

This unique opportunity allows me to bring my artistic journey full circle, spanning two decades and taking me from Vancouver Island to the Northern Territories and now to the extreme east coast of Canada. It’s a coast-to-coast-to-coast perspective that I’ve been striving for throughout my career as an artist.

A year ago, I was preparing for a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, a vastly different experience from what the east coast promises. Banff greeted me with its snowy mountains and forested landscapes, offering a picture-perfect winter wonderland. I have no doubt that Newfoundland will present a stark contrast, and I am thrilled at the prospect of exploring its rugged coastlines, unique geography, and the captivating textures of its rocky terrain. I’ll be on the lookout for those quintessential hints of Canadiana: brightly painted buildings set against moody skies. Immersing myself in Newfoundland’s rich culture and warm hospitality is another exciting prospect, as is embracing the wildness and distinctiveness of the region.

As I delve into the Pouch Cove Foundation’s residency archives, I’m delighted to showcase 15 remarkable Canadian artists in residence from 1990-2023, whose work I deeply admire, and who have drawn inspiration from this exceptional opportunity.

Pouch Cove Nights, Ray Mackey Photography

15 notable Canadian artists who have been invited to create art in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland by the Pouch Cove Foundation:

1. Harold Klunder – Flesherton, Ontario
2. Wanda Koop – Winnipeg, Manitoba
3. David T Alexander – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
4. Jordan Broadworth – Toronto, Ontario
5. Scott MacLeod – Montreal, Quebec
6. Marlena Wyman – Edmonton, Alberta
7. Beverley Hawksley – Toronto, Ontario
8. Sarah Slean – Toronto, Ontario
9. Jim Park – Vancouver, Canada
10. Tim Okamura – New York, USA (originally from Edmonton)
11. Robert LeMay – Edmonton, Canada
12. Nicole Sleeth – Victoria, Canada
13. Andrew Morrow – Ottawa, Ontario
14. Jeremy Herndl – Victoria, British Columbia

Brandy Saturley at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, 2022

I can’t wait to join the ranks of these esteemed artists and immerse myself in the beauty and uniqueness of Pouch Cove, Newfoundland. See you soon, Pouch Cove!

Sincerely Yours,

Brandy Saturley (#15)

September 19, 2023

Making Art in Newfoundland

Artist Process, Artist Residency

Artist Residency Pouch Cove – Making Art in Newfoundland

On the heels of a residency at The Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, I am pleased to share I will be making art in Newfoundland in October 2023. The Board of Directors of the Pouch Cove Foundation awarded me a residency at the Foundation’s facilities in Newfoundland for the month of October. One of many beautiful things about this opportunity is it will allow me to fill in the gaps in a body of work I have been creating about Canada for more than a decade now. I have been on a journey across Canada looking to understand my land and what it truly means to be ‘Canadian’. My paintings are part biography and part storytelling. I am painting about my experiences and what I see, touch, taste, feel and hear, and I am also painting stories of these travels in Canada. What informed my work began with ‘popular culture’ and stereotype. Over the years I became more interested in ‘authentic experiences’ and I began to travel to gain a true understanding of the collective Canadian consciousness, and in returning home to Vancouver Island, a better understanding of the culture in which I was raised.

Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, Canada

Originally a fishing community, Pouch Cove is now principally a dormitory town for people working in the city and home to a large retirement population. It is at the northern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the eastern edge of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is a town whose motto is, ‘first to see the sun’, as it is the first place that wakes up each morning in Canada. As a Canadian living at the western-most point in Canada, and the last to see the sun, I am excited to delve into the differences and perhaps, similarities, found on both coasts of Canada. Having spent time in Yellowknife, NWT during midnight sun time of year, it will also be quite the contrast to my past Canadian explorations. See you on the eastern tip of Canada in Fall 2023!

Pouch Cove dock, Newfoundland, Canada

December 2, 2022

Banff Centre Artist Residency

Artist Residency, Banff Centre

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity – Artist Residency November 2022

For two weeks in November I worked in the Leighton Artists Studios on the campus of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Alberta. I was invited to bring my studio and practice to Banff and awarded the Paul D. Fleck Fellowships in the Arts Endowment which paid for my visual artist residency and stay at the Banff Centre. Having spent two weeks in the stunning location on the side of Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain, with some of the largest and most distinct of the Canadian Rocky Mountains surrounding the campus, I now refer to Banff Centre as the visual arts Juilliard of Canada. Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a learning organization built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and creative development. The goal of all who work here is to inspire everyone who attends the campus – artists, leaders, and thinkers – to unleash their creative potential. The studios have played host to many important Canadian artist collaborations over the years including K.D Lang, Joni Mitchell, Séan McCann of Great Big Sea, and Canadian Visual Artist Brian Jungen.

View from Vistas dining room Banff Centre

The project I planned to undertake while in Banff, was to make a very large painting on loose duck canvas in my studio. The painting subject matter to be informed by the immediate area surrounding my studio and around campus. Through capturing the sights, sounds, smells and feeling of the place through video, photography, writing and exploration on foot, I worked to translate the experience of being in this place through the medium of acrylic and gouache paint on canvas. I went in with a loose plan and project proposal, which resulted in two large paintings, a diptych, communicating one visual story on canvas.

Brandy Saturley standing in front of Thom Studio

I was assigned to the Thom Studio #6, named for the architect of the studio, Ron Thom. One of 10 studios in the forested and secluded areas of the campus known as the Leighton Artists Studios. Within the walls of these studios artists of all genres work away, from writers to musicians and visual artists, this is a small village of remarkably prolific professional creatives. When I arrived to the path that circles the studios I was met with a snowstorm and white out skies. We walked in my supplies for painting, lights, photography equipment and some already finished paintings as I believe it is important to surround yourself with your previous work, if possible. This studio was made for painters with vaulted ceiling and skylights, patio and windows by a desk.

Ron Thom Studio #6 – Leighton Artists Studios – Banff Centre

The skylights were covered in snow and added to the feeling of being in wooded silence in the snowy wilderness. The view out my desk window, a perfect winter wonderland.

I arrived on the Sunday before my residency start date and was graciously offered the opportunity to set up my studio a day early, this way Monday morning I could get to what I came for, making new work inspired by the location.

Inside Thom Studio – Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

On the Monday I began two weeks in my studio. A total of 12 days in residence on campus. It was a short stay and a lot of work to make, but luckily my studio was open to me 24hrs a day. During my residency I made two large paintings each measuring 58” x 52”, also known as a diptych. These paintings are inspired by my experience of exploring the woods around my studio and the wildlife that surrounds.

Painting in progress – making art at Banff Centre

I spent 7 hours a day in my studio and we took some time on the weekend to get photos at Lake Minnewanka, Two Jack Lake, North Saskatchewan River Crossing, Vermillion Lakes, Mount Norquay and Bow Lake. It was very cold, lots of snow, and I fell in love with it! Safe to say I am a snow person now.

Brandy Saturley at Lake Minnewanka.

During this residency I was taken by the silence of the forest and sounds of squirrel, raven and deer outside my door.

Squirrel!

Stag! mule deer.

I see you!

My studio practice includes working through my ideas using video, photography, writing and observation. As I work through my thoughts for a painting, and lay down the blueprint on canvas, I am working on telling a story about my experience and my observations. I have always felt myself an observer in a big beautiful world, letting experiences flow over me and into my brain, processing in the frontal lobe and coming out through my brush on canvas. In a larger sense I am looking to tell the stories of my Canadian experiences, each painting or series of paintings is a new chapter in this journey.

Brandy Saturley in Thom Studio at Banff Centre

The paintings, photos, video and writing I have created during this residency will feed future work and series of paintings. Beginning with this diptych painting, titled ‘Symphony of the Forest’, I am excited to see where the material developed and gathered on this trip will affect future work.

Chair of contemplation – Banff Centre – November 2022

I have created a time-lapse video of my painting process while in the Leighton Studios at Banff Centre. Watch how the paintings developed.

See more paintings by Canadian Contemporary Artist Brandy Saturley. Learn more about the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. A little known fact about the Banff Centre, the conferences hosted by the centre pay for artist residencies, along with donors, the conferences are an integral part of keeping this gem of the Canadian Art World moving forward. Now celebrating 90 years!

My time at Banff Centre exceeded my expectations from the people, to the facilities, studio and hotel. I will look forward to returning again, soon!

November 24, 2022

Royal College of Art

Artist Residency, London Art Scene

Experimentation and Growth: New Art Made in London at The Royal College of Art Summer Intensive

I recently returned home from a month of art making, art talking, and art education experience in London, England. In my previous blog posts I talk about this compressed and intensive art experience in detail. I also explain the impetus for the works created during my time at the Royal College of Art, on the beautiful Battersea campus, just outside central London in the borough of Wandsworth. Known as the ‘brighter borough’ the roadway sign and symbol for this area of London includes the iconic Battersea Power Station, which in outline looks somewhat like the city of Oz, with a rainbow arc above the outline of the city. My previous posts discuss in detail my timeline while at the RCA as well as the detailed stories behind the art.

For this post I am sharing more photos of my studio and the work produced while in London. Please scroll on for photos of these works that I refer to as the ‘Mirrors’ series. These are mirrors of my London experiences and the feelings being pulled from within, while I worked through my three weeks of this intensive contemporary art making experience.

Somewhere over the rainbow, and under the towering skyscrapers of London, these are the ‘MIRRORS’ paintings.

Painting I: Topsy Turvy (Rorschach for the UK)

acrylic on raw canvas, poured and brushed,

72 inches high by 53 inches wide,

Brandy Saturley 2019