Nine Creston Valley artists are joining forces for a show running Sept. 5-Oct. 3 at the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce. But this won’t be just another art show.
“It’s specifically dealing with Creston agricultural imagery,” said Elaine Alfoldy, the exhibit’s organizer.
Core Matters: Farm and Food will feature watercolours by Andy and Elaine Alfoldy and Karen Arrowsmith, pastels by Ute Bachinski and Carol Schloss, textiles by Eileen Gidman, mixed media by Eileen Hirota, and acrylics by Sandy Kunze and James McDowell.
The show, with a couple of other artists included, ran at Kimberley’s Centre 64 from June 10-July 5, pleasing visitors who saw the images of Creston Valley farm life.
“The theme … speaks to Creston’s central Kootenay location as a largely farming valley and that food is at the heart of a happy life,” Alfoldy wrote in the group’s Centre 64 application. “The landscape of orchards and farms, the farm animals, the work done in each season, the farmers’ markets, wineries and home gardens of the Creston Valley inspire each of the painters. We have developed our own unique interpretations of the agricultural and farming landscape that surround us in the paintings we do in our own professional practices.”
The artists create a wide range of themes, but the agriculture-related pieces are often the most popular, said Alfoldy.
“I looked at things Andy and I have done over the years,” she said. “People come in for my farm lady and Andy’s landscapes.”
Styles in the exhibit range from realism to semi abstraction, and will include many displayed in Kimberley, as well as new pieces.
When chamber executive director Jim Jacobsen gave the group the opportunity to show the work in Creston, they couldn’t pass it up — while many Kootenay galleries have pictures of mountains and snow, for example, agriculture is quite unique to local artists.
“Creston has a specific way artists treat farms, food and crops in imagery, and I thought we should show it off to Creston,” Alfoldy said.