The Smithers Art-Gallery has opened an exhibit as of today (July 31st) that will run through September 8th.
The gallery says they are excited to welcome “Touched by Light” which was created by area local Cindy Materi and former Smithers resident, Mairead Sikkes.
In an online release, the gallery had this to say about the exhibit.
“The upcoming show is made powerful by the synonymous imagery of two artists living in different locales while painting in parallel. Cindy and Mairead are adept at capturing the light of their surroundings and radiating the light back into their paintings.”
Although the exhibit is currently on display, the opening reception is scheduled for August 2nd from 7-9 pm.
A little bit about the artists:
Cindy Materi grew up in Smithers and has lived in various northern communities including Stewart, Pine Point NWT, Tumbler Ridge and Quick. She has a B.E.D and currently lives with her husband Ron in Kitwanga, where she works as an educational assistant. Cindy has always been involved in a variety of creative pursuits. Her paintings have been exhibited in Smithers, Terrace, Prince George, and Yellowknife. This will be her first show in many years.
Mairead Sikkes was born in Belfast, N. Ireland, Mairead was always passionately interested in drawing and painting. Her parents encouraged her by arranging oil painting lessons with a local artist at the age of 14, this led to them showing off my work to every visitor who came to the house! At Teachers’ College, Mairead specialized in Art and taught Art at an inner city High School, in Belfast, for a year. In 1971, Mairead volunteered for a two-year stint at St. Joseph’s school in Smithers, Northern BC and ended up meeting her husband Nick there and staying on in Canada. Shortly after retiring from teaching, Mairead moved to the Okanagan in 2012 to be near family. The Okanagan provides a different type of scenery altogether with much more exposed rock, long-needled, airy pines and of course, many vineyards – quite different from the dense coniferous forests and mountains of the north. Given the warmer climate, Mairead also appreciates the wider variety of floral subjects grown for painting.