“We’re not separate from nature; we are nature.”
So says Hornby Island/Victoria-based artist Louisa Elkin, and that sentiment shines through her collaborative exhibition with Victoria artist Samantha Dickie, NOW. Throughout their work, the artists use neutral tones and natural inspiration to create the paintings and porcelain and ceramic installations that make up the exhibit.
In addition to utilizing their natural environment, the artists emphasize the importance of being present within their exhibit. The title, NOW, reflects this desire and embodies the show as a whole.
“We settled on NOW because we realized that that was what really encapsulated the whole construct,” says Elkin. “There are always these different things pulling you in different directions—stillness and motion, emptiness and fullness, freedom and constraint, past and future.”
The artists also share a great affinity with nature, which moves throughout their work. Their art cohesively joins together even though it was uncoordinated, says Elkin.
“Sam and I did our own work separately then brought it together, but we chose to do a show together because of the natural connection between our work,” says Elkin. “In terms of bringing it all together, it was very seamless and natural the way it all flowed.”
In her daily life, Elkin practises living in the moment through being out in nature, yoga, and painting. Subsequently, her prominent focus of presence is demonstrated throughout her work.
“When you look at my work it draws you right in,” she says. “There’s this intensity in the reflected light, the rippling of the water, or the erosion and the formation of the stones and the driftwood, captured in an abstract way, and yet you can clearly see that it is a beachscape or an oceanscape… You get drawn deeply in and then you feel this sort of serenity and peace.”
Elkin also explores this concept through painting outside along the coast of Victoria and Hornby Island, as she finds lots of inspiration there. Specifically, she is inspired in her home on Hornby, where she worked on the majority of her pieces for the exhibit.
“I have a sense of home there, a sense of place, and a sense of belonging,” she says. “When those basic human needs of love and belonging and sense of home are met it’s much easier to go into your creative place and let it evolve.”
There is one piece in the exhibit that Elkin is most proud of.
“My favourite is the one called Then and Now, a play on the words ‘now and then,’ but with a focus on the ‘now,’” she says. “It’s the most resolved, and it has a sense of drawing you in through the sandstone forms where you want to walk into the painting.”
Elkin’s style of contemporary abstraction is shown clearly through Then and Now. Through her work, she also demonstrates aspects of herself.
“I’m very much an optimist, but I’m also very pragmatic, so there is a sense of optimism that comes through in my work, and a sense of celebration of all that is beautiful,” she says. “Everything is changing constantly, but at the same time it’s stable and continuous.”
NOW
Until Thursday, March 24
Fortune Gallery
fortunegallery.ca