ARTISTS
KOOTENAY BOUNDARY ART CALENDAR 2025
Melanie MacVoy
January
Fernie, BC
www.melaniemacvoy.com
Born and raised in Southern Ontario. Melanie MacVoy completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at UBC and Emily Carr University.. While exploring the Coastal Mountains on Vancouver Island, Melanie fell in love with the outdoor lifestyle.
In 2000 Melanie joined the small mountain community of Fernie. She is inspired by exploring wilderness areas and painting outdoors ‘en plein-air’. International clients and outdoors enthusiasts collect her work.
Denise Lemaster
February
Invermere, BC
www.deniselemaster.ca
Denise has been painting primarily Western Canadian landscapes for many years and finds endless inspiration in the vastness and variety to be found. Her style simplifies the elements for the viewers as she strives to promote conversations concerning an appreciation of the countryside and lifestyle.
“I have lived in many places but the Columbia Valley is where I grew up and it’s home.”
susan faye
March
Nelson, BC
www.susanfayephotography.com
Susan Faye has called the Kootenays home since 1979. She studied art and photography at DTUC (David Thompson University Centre) and has had numerous Gallery exhibits in B.C. She went on to pursue a career in Physiotherapy, but after retirement, returned to her first love of photography. She has received recognition for several images in internationally based photo platforms. Her deep respect for nature is evident in the subject matter she chooses.
Richard Reid, RCA
April
Grand Forks, BC
www.richardreid.ca
Richard Reid’s work concentrates on a synthesis of the human figure and landscape, and the subtle ‘messages’ contained. He has lived and worked in Mexico and in Europe. He was an Assistant Professor and Chairman of the BFA Program at the University of British Columbia, then became the founding Director of the Grand Forks Art Gallery and a teacher in Emily Carr’s Outreach Program. In 2004, Richard was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Margie Bromley
May
Castlegar, BC
margiebee00MAY0@icloud.com
Emerging artist, Margie Bromley is deeply affected by the beauty of the Kootenays.
Bromley began painting 10 years ago. Mainly working in oils and experimenting with other mediums on canvas and board; creating art is both a joy and a challenge. She also enjoys designing murals and working with community members, painting murals on the inside and outside of trail outhouses along the Slocan Valley Rail Trail. It is a wonderful way to bring art to unexpected places and reach out to the local community.
Renée Harper
June
Nelson, BC
www.reneeharperart.com
Renée Harper is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer and college professor who lives in Nelson, B.C. Renée studied painting and creative writing at the Kootenay School of the Arts before earning a B.A. from the U of Toronto and an M.A. and Ph.D. in literature from York University. Renée has shown and published her creative and academic work in various venues and platforms.
Painting invites me to surrender myself to the simple acts of mixing and applying paint as acts of immersion.
Shelley Ross
July
Kaslo, BC
www.shelleyross.ca
Love of nature drew Shelley Ross to a career in natural heritage interpretation. Her work involved creating original artwork for panels and brochures for interpretive trails and visitor centre exhibits in natural environment and historic parks.
Shelley was also awarded an artist residency at the Wallace Stegner house in Eastend, Saskatchewan. Her body of work, Inner Rainforest, featuring images of the interior rainforest of the West Kootenays has been exhibited in several galleries in southern British Columbia.
Sab Curtis
August
Silverton & Nelson, BC
www.sabcurtis.com
Sab Curtis is a self-taught landscape artist. Her affinity and deep respect for the natural world stems from a life of exploring mountainous terrain around the world, including her own Kootenay backyard.
Art became Sab’s unexpected silver lining while recovering from a traumatic brain injury. In 2020, she put brush to canvas as a therapeutic outlet. An engineer by profession, she has converted her problem-solving skills to her art practice through cognitive “rewiring’.
Yvonne Vanens Munro
September
Krestova, BC
www.nowebsite.ca
I live in the tiny community of Krestova in the West Kootenays. I am compelled to make Art as a way of exploring and expressing what I see and how I feel about the landscape and our environment.
I started drawing as a child. I had the privilege of studying Art and Art History at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (Vancouver), at the University of Victoria, and Kootenay School of the Arts and the Oxygen Centre in Nelson. Colour Theory changed everything.
Joie Pare
October
Rock Creek, BC
www.joiepare.com
When I start a painting, I have an idea in my mind of what and how the painting will develop and turn out. Sometimes it comes out just the way I pictured it, sometimes something totally different. I paint from my own photos and spend all year gathering photo references to paint in the winter when I work from home.
I am a member of the Artist for Conservation with partial proceeds of painting sales going to support conservation efforts in BC.
Simon Mitchell
November
Nelson, BC
simonandjudithmitchell@gmail.com
Simon Mitchell was a family doctor. He has painted off and on all his life and took early retirement to go to the Kootenay School of Art in 1999.
He joined the metal studio and has continued to paint as well as sculpt in steel, bronze, and snow.
Art is a mystery – an idea transforms into something that is often beautiful, but always strange. One is left wondering, ‘’where did that come from?”
Tsuneko Kokuba
December
Silverton, BC
www.tsunekokokubo.ca
Tsuneko Kokubo was born in Steveston BC in 1937, and raised in Japan. Returning to Canada in her late teens, she studied Fine Arts at Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr) focusing on drawing and painting.
She has worked extensively in physical theatre and dance, and costume design and in 1990 she returned to full-time painting. She has had numerous exhibitions, and has paintings in private collections in Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico and the USA