Thirty-six artists. Twenty-seven studios. One weekend.
The Quadra Island Studio Tour returns for its 23rd year this weekend, June 5 to 7, offering visitors the chance to step inside creative spaces across the island and meet the people behind the work. Woodworkers, painters, jewellers, potters, photographers, fibre artists, printmakers and mixed-media artists will all be opening their doors. The range is staggering.
This year also introduces a new Friday evening preview from 6 to 9 p.m. at select locations, marked with a star and moon on the tour map. It is the official start of the tour and an opportunity to spread studio visits
across the weekend.
I plan to get to as many stops as possible. The talent on this island is unreasonable. One of those stops will be Rogue Wave Woodworks, where Christine Walsh creates furniture, vessels, pepper mills, cribbage
boards and other pieces that blur the line between fine craft and sculpture. A graduate of North Island College’s Joinery and Furniture Design program, Walsh works from a studio tucked between forest and
hobby farm.
One of the first things she showed me was a piece of wood exhibiting chatoyance (above), a structural optical phenomenon that occurs when grain reverses direction in waves. Light catches each section differently, creating depth and movement that shifts as you walk past it. It cannot be faked. It lives in the wood.
Walsh spoke about her love of functional objects and her difficulty giving herself permission to create work that is “just art.” Yet much of what fills her studio already occupies that space. Her sculptural vases, carefully turned vessels and beautifully finished game boards are every bit as artistic as they are practical. A pepper mill sits in someone’s kitchen. A cribbage board becomes part of a family’s routine. Her work enters daily life.
Across the island, artist Elke River explores a very different relationship with the natural world. River works across painting, printmaking and mixed media, drawing inspiration from conservation, native plants, forests and shorelines. Much of her work is vibrant and colourful, influenced in part by a childhood spent in Miami before moving west.
One piece in particular stopped me in my tracks. It’s the painting
featured below.
At first glance, it’s a wolf emerging from darkness. Look longer and an entire ecosystem begins to emerge. A goshawk watches from one side. A western tanager perches above. Lichen drapes through the scene. Wildflowers and native plants fill the foreground. Around the wolf’s neck hangs a collar and identification tag that immediately draws the eye.
The painting was originally created for a major conservation exhibition at the Robert Bateman Centre in 2020. When the pandemic disrupted those plans, the exhibition never unfolded as intended.
Look closer and the painting expands into something much larger than a
portrait. Every plant, bird and strand of lichen belongs there. The wolf may be the first thing you notice, but it isn’t the whole story. Neither is the collar. The painting is ultimately about an ecosystem, and the countless connections within it. The wolf simply happens to be standing at the centre.
Elsewhere in River’s studio, coastal works featuring seabirds, shells and
kelp carry an entirely different energy. During the tour she plans to continue working on several pieces live, allowing visitors to see works in progress alongside completed paintings and prints.
Not every memorable moment involved conservation or artistic
philosophy. At one point I badly misheard a title and became convinced a painting was called My Inner Beachcomber Is a Hoser. We laughed so hard that renaming it briefly entered the conversation.
That may be the real gift of the Studio Tour. Beyond the art itself, it offers the chance to step into someone’s creative world for a moment and leave seeing things a little differently.
The Quadra Island Studio Tour runs Friday, June 5 from 6 to 9 p.m. at select preview locations, Saturday, June 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, June 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Maps are available online at quadraislandarts.com and in print across the island.
There are 27 studios to visit and nine artists staged at the Community Centre where there will also be a pop-up Brazilian café
feeding hungry art lovers all weekend long.
With so many brand-new-to-the-tour artists this year, who are
you excited to see? What are your favourite stops each year?
Top image credit: image with three pieces including
beachcomber collage and painting, oyster painting, and
botanical painting – Elke River