by Kyle Wells reporter@prpeak.com A Vancouver artist, who recently moved to Powell River, is presenting his first exhibition of work to his new home.
Graham Winter moved to Powell River this summer purely by fluke. His love for architecture extends to his own housing and Winter has been looking for some time for a heritage home to buy. He had been looking in the Victoria area but a friend suggested Powell River and Winter became interested.
“So I started looking and sure enough there’s all these great old houses for sale,” said Winter. “So I started to research Powell River and what I kept finding was great. The art community and the community itself.”
The exhibition, entitled Edifice, is the same that Winter presented in Vancouver last year with support from Heritage Vancouver and the City of Vancouver Archives.
For the past few years Winter has devoted his time to painting heritage buildings and houses in Victoria and Vancouver. The works in this exhibition are his largest scale from the series, on canvases five feet tall and two and a half feet wide. A total of nine canvases will be displayed at the show.
Winter jokingly said he doesn’t like thinking of them as heritage buildings because some of them were built in his lifetime. Age does enter into it but the way light falls on a building is the biggest draw for Winter to his subject matter, along with a lifelong
interest in architecture.
“It looks really interesting, capturing light on a building, as opposed to say a tree, even though that’s beautiful too,” said Winter. “There’s something about a building with great lighting that I like.”
Now that Winter has settled in Townsite he said he plans to paint some of the great old buildings found in that community. He has been collecting images of buildings to paint and will start working on them soon. A number of buildings have caught his eye but he said his choices may surprise some.
The exhibition opens with a gala event from 7 to 10 pm on Friday, December 9 at the Rodmay Hotel. Art, music, food and wine will be on hand, along with Winter who will be available to answer questions. The paintings are for sale.
