Nine Creston artists have joined forces to start a summer arts market on Northwest Boulevard.
“We started talking about this in January,” Lori Wikdahl said on Friday. “All but two of us are members of the Creston Art Club.”
Located in front of Pair-A-Dice RV Park and Campground, Artistic Visions will open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., through August. A grand opening will be held this week.
“Come out and meet the artists and have a coffee and goodies,” Wikdahl said.
At Artistic Visions, works are for sale by artists both well known and new to the area. They include Wikdahl, Juhl Campbell, Sue Kim, Grace Tyler, Val Van der Poel, Carol Huscroft, Annette Purnell, Brent Wellander (Koo-tenay Nature Photos) and Lawrence Fletcher.
“We wanted to create a market, not a gallery — we want a customer friendly atmosphere that makes people feel comfortable,” Wikdahl said. “Fortunately, we were able to secure a building with a washroom and air conditioning at a price that is economically feasible.”
Bright and cheerful inside, the market features a variety of artistic styles and media, including watercolours and acrylics, encaustic wax pictures and Wikdahl’s rock paintings.
“Most of us participated in the Arts Garage show on Canyon Street this spring,” she explained. “That set a burning desire in us to do something like this. We decided to try and see how this works — hopefully we will be back next year with an even bigger and better market.”
Visitors to Artistic Visions will always find an artist working, and another looking after customers.
More information about the market and the work of each artists can be found on at www.mellowood.ca/artisticvisions.