A Vernon artist is opening her new studio and gallery with a vernissage.
Linda Wadley is welcoming the public to help christen her new Moods and Motions Art Studio in East Hill.
Vernissage is the French word for varnishing. It’s the old practice of setting aside a day before an exhibition’s opening for artists to put the finishing touches on their paintings.
“When the art was completed, it was varnished and hung on the wall,” said Wadley. “Now it’s used as the term of the first showing of an artist’s work.”
Wadley’s paintings are now up on the walls of her new studio-gallery, which was formerly a garage.
“It is an artist’s dream studio,” she said. “I started painting at the kitchen table many years ago. Art education, art journeys, and adventures encountered along the way have accumulated into this fine space to create in today.”
Wadley studied art at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and now paints en plein air (outdoors, on site).
“I find bliss in capturing the day’s moods and motions on canvas. Facing the elements makes the painting more real,” she said. “I like to experience the day, moment by moment, and while the painting is taking shape, the day becomes imbedded and transfers into a story.”
Wadley’s paintings on display will include scenes from the Columbia Ice Fields, the Crowsnest Pass, the old growth forest at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, as well as a heli-painting trip she took on a 14-passenger helicopter, with her oils, to the top peaks of the Rocky Mountains.
Also on display will be scenes from around Vernon and the North Okanagan.
All are invited to attend the opening reception of Wadley’s Moods and Motions Studio, located at 1805 39th Ave., Thursday, June 23 from 2 to 7 p.m. (parking is available up the driveway at the back of studio, as well as on 19th Street).
Wadley will also be giving a painting away during her reception.
“The choice will be yours to pick from a summer, winter, or fall painting,” she said.