Saturday, April 9   9:00am - 9:00pm
Sunday, April 10  9:00am - 4:00pm 

GO FIGURE art show

North Saanich artist Nicholas Pearce and 30 of his students have joined forces to create an exciting two-day collaborative show celebrating figurative art and the female form.

The venue? Mary Winspear’s massive Bodine Hall, home of the famed Sidney Fine Art Show.

This time, however, the hall will be filled with acrylic paintings, each created using Pearce’s distinctive, simple techniques. Half of the 150 works have been painted by students during workshops; the other half are by Pearce himself.

All the artists worked with a single, 1 ½-inch housepainter’s brush (yes, just one brush for everything from the finest of details to broad washes). Their limited palette consisted of five tubes of acrylic paint (four colours plus white).

In just two days, students gridded, drew and painted a 30- by 40-inch canvas, which for many of them was a huge leap from smaller formats they’ve used previously.

Most of the pieces in the show are of flamenco dancers or nudes. Many are self-portraits completed during Pearce’s course for women called Through Artists’ Eyes: Seeing Your Body as a Work of Art.

You’ll see several paintings done from identical photo references, but are nonetheless unique works of art. Each canvas reflects the painter’s artistic vision, emotions, and personal struggles and triumphs.

Art has shaped Pearce’s life, starting when he was a small-town Alberta boy. His father painted landscapes and horses in his spare time, had always dreamed of being an artist, and encouraged his son to make the most of his considerable artistic talent. (As a boy, Pearce was once disqualified from an art show because the judges assumed he’d traced his entry. When his teacher offered to call him in then and there to show his stuff, the judges relented. Pearce won the show.)

After high school, Pearce was accepted by the highly competitive Alberta College of Art, then found work in the media, becoming illustrations editor at the Calgary Herald. In his early 30s, he and his family moved to the West Coast, and he began the transition from illustration to fine art. He started teaching 10 years ago, and has been honing his approach ever since.

Eight years ago, he was inducted to Painters at Painter’s annual celebration of accomplished B.C. artists by a jury of his peers.

Admission to Go Figure is free. On Saturday night, starting at 7, a reception will be held, with no-host bar featuring local wines.