Tofino & Ucluelet Gallery Blog

Pacific Coastal Mermaid Art Exhibition

Posted: Wednesday March 19^th, 2014 @ 5:08pm

mermaid poster art by Yvonne Maximchuk

PACIFIC COASTAL MERMAIDS
A MERMAID SONG TO THE RETURN OF THE GREY WHALE
MARCH 15th - 23rd, 2014

Ucluelet Reflecting Spirit Gallery
1636 Peninsula Rd.in Davison's Plaza
UCLUELET, BC, Canada * http://www.reflectingspirit.ca
For Information 250 726-2422 or Toll Free 1 855 726-2420

A Partner event of the Pacific Rim Whale Festival http://www.pacificrimwhalefestival.com

An enchanting ART EXHIBITION of MERMAID and UNDERWATER WORLD paintings, sculpture, drawings, jewelry, glass and First Nations art.

Enjoy the following blog and artwork by
'Pacific Coastal Mermaid' 2014 Poster Artist
Yvonne Maximchuk
'Deep Sea Maiden Dreams' watercolor painting
http://www.reflectingspirit.ca/gallery/product/deep-sea-maiden-dreams

An Artist's Life, as Mermaid by Yvonne Maximchuk

Mermaid....Enchantress, seductive siren, storm-maker, unattainable, mysterious sister to the seal, half fish-half woman of the sea. Where better can one feel most deeply ones feminine and fecund self, as when incarnate as sea creature, a-swim in the brine of the eternal source of everything?

Ah, mermaid dreams. I feared I might lose them as I grew out of my girlhood reveries and took my place in the world as a practicing artist. yet the magic of the undersea mermaid world never left me and continues to inspire and inform my imagination and artistry. The ocean, not far from my door and never far from my thoughts is ever-present and takes its place as my most favoured theme in any medium.

I find it an easy task to treat the mermaid as simply another of the amazing denizens to be found in the shadowed liquid depths. Why look for proof or pictures when so much remains unseen along with her and her kind? Being 'in mermaid' enables me to view from underneath, the surface; to see the flash, ripple and flow of the sky-water interface, split with sunlit refractions and a-bubble with whipped-jello froth; all so inspirational to the artistic compulsion. It enables me to swim alongside the dolphin, whale and porpoise and note how their bodies work as they move through the sea. 'In mermaid' I can conceive of other sensory equipment that human's lack, yet a creature of the sea might have.

Being 'in mermaid' brings me into my body afloat; sinuous, boneless, weightless. The freedom of the body from gravity liberates the imagination and lets it loose to roam untethered. Being 'in mermaid' allows me to investigate the wondrously varied marine flora and fauna that inhabit, decorate and enliven the watery membrane that encircles the earth.

That one small imagining, that I am a mermaid, is my passport to the fantastic marvels of the known and illusory universes, and to the great joy of the artist, which is simply to enact art; and after the joy of the art-making, to offer the results to the viewer, who may welcome it, or even find it, like the artist, as necessary as breathing.

Mermaid in Kelp

'Kelp Maiden' watercolour painting by Yvonne Maximchuk

'This painting represents the artist herself as
'in mermaid'
http://www.reflectingspirit.ca/gallery/product/kelp-maiden

Yvonne Maximchuk
a life long working artist lives near Echo Bay on Gilford Island, at SeaRose studio, where she paints the islands and inlets (and mermaids) of the inside waters of Vancouver Island in watercolor and acrylic. She also makes porcelain tableware with decorative marine theme and offers personalized art instruction and art retreats.

Yvonne is author of a memoir 'Drawn To Sea; Paintbrush to Chainsaw, Carving out a Life on BC's Rugged Rainforest' and co-author will Bill Proctor of 'Full Moon Flood Tide'.

merboy chasing fish in kelp