I am participating in the upcoming art auction, “Art Incognito” at the Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA) on November 15, 2019.
I recently created and donated this framed 9” X 12” mixed media collage titled: “Gift from the Sea, #5”.
To attend this event and to bid on this piece or work from 90+ Victoria artists go to www.artincognito.ca
“Gift from the Sea, #5”, mixed media collage 9”x12” Jill Ehlert ©️
Click here: Check out my workshop page for all the details.
“Sea Forms: The Nature of Creation “ solo show by Jill Ehlert, inaugural artist at the brand new “The Chapel Gallery”, Victoria, BC. 2018
I have been really busy over the past year since September 20, 2018, when my show ”SeaForms: The Nature of Creation” was installed at The Chapel Gallery. I was in attendance for all of the Saturday’s and a couple of Monday’s that the gallery was open, I enjoyed meeting people and talking about my work, We had 115 people attend on the opening night and artist talk. As well, over the course of five weeks, we had about 200 people come to the gallery to see my work. We had wonderful talks and I was overwhelmed by the reception to this new body of work.
After my show ended on October 30th, 2018 —Nicky Rendell, the lead curator, at The Chapel Gallery, asked me to join her on the curatorial team. My husband Paul B. Peters also joined the team to act as the installer for gallery shows.
After the gallery opened with my solo show in September 2018, we curated and installed six gallery shows. These were five solo shows by Victoria artists: Sharon A. Stone, Catherine Fraser, Roberta Pyx Sutherland, Marney Ward and Christine Gollner. The Chapel Gallery had a group show with the St. Matthias and Abbeychurch communities, which brought it to a total of six exhibitions for our first year.
Each show ran for four weeks. There was a great turn out for all the art openings and artist talks and all these events were well attended.
It has been a lot of work helping to get this gallery on its feet and going —it has been a great experience. Now that the gallery has been through its first full year and after much thought, I have decided that it is time to get back into my studio full-time. As well I have decided to offer workshops once again in my studio, therefore I will give up my position with the Chapel Gallery. What a wonderful year it was!
Below are the posters for each of the 7 shows that the gallery has produced over the past 12 months.
On our second day of our art tour with the Vancouver Island School of Art, we had an architecture tour of midtown Manhattan.
This first group of photos were taken walking to meet up with our tour guide. We left our hotel at 8th Ave and 51st Street, walking south to 42nd Street and then along to 1st Avenue, where we met Katherine our tour guide, across from the United Nations Building.
This second set of photos are taken from the UN building, Tudor City and all along 42nd Street.
Paul and I were part of the New York City Art Tour with the Vancouver School of Art. We had a spectacular time. New York City is clean, safe, fun, filled with friendly people everywhere and something to see in every square inch. We were part of an architecture tour, we experienced Times Square at night; Museum of Modern Art, The Highline, The Hudsons Yards, The Whitney Museum of Art, a boat tour around the island of Manhattan, The Drawing Centre; a private photography walk-through for Paul and me in SOHO and China Town with local photographer James Maher; “Smoke Jazz and Supper Club” especially to hear jazz musician, Mike LaDonne, a jazz pianist and B-3 organist; he is one of Paul’s favorite jazz musicians. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chelsea art district, Chelsea Market, The Museum of Art and Design. It was an action packed 7 days, walking 10 miles each day and one day we topped it at 15 miles. Some of those days, we even took the subway.
Eastward bound over the Rockies - heading to New York City.
We arrived at our hotel in the theatre district in NYC about 5:30 on May 6th. Later in the evening around 8:30, Paul and I walked a few blocks past all of the theatres to Times Square. What an experience, so many lights from all the billboards, at times it almost felt like daylight surrounded us, and yet there was black sky over head - very different feeling. Lots of people and of course a real buzz. Walking through Times Square in the daylight is just not the same as a night-time experience.
I will be posting more photos from the trip.
The Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve on southern Vancouver Island holds the secret to one of the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s best restoration success stories. Once overrun by invasive plants and agricultural grasses, the preserve now boasts a vibrant community of native species, including many species at risk that rely on the globally rare Garry oak habitat found here. Less than 10 per cent of this ecosystem is left in the world, and yet these woodlands and meadows support the highest biodiversity of plants in coastal British Columbia.
OPEN ONE DAY A YEAR
Access by special permission only. Preserve is opened to the public one day each spring for the In Bloom Wildflower Festival. Visitors can enjoy a short interpretive boardwalk off of Maple Bay Road that juts into the preserve and offers a view of this rare and special habitat.
This is our view out the window while having breakfast at “The Vine”, a Belgian inspired restaurant in Cowichan Bay, B.C. This local restaurant is our favorite place of ours, the service is crazy good and the food is a 10/10.That is Salt Spring Island in the background. The two brown buildings are part of the The Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre and The Cowichan Wooden Boat Society, which is a non-profit organization founded to preserve, exhibit and demonstrate maritime heritage, especially that of wooden boats.
We had another visit to Butchart Gardens. Fabulous spring gardens.
It was a very dramatic cloud-scape on the breakwater at Dallas Road. What a wonderful walk to see these dramatic clouds and blue blue sky.
On our drive home to Cobble Hill from Victoria, the huge clouds were everywhere and we passed by a double rainbow.; the most colourful rainbow I have ever witnessed.
Here you see the rainbow making a huge semi-circle.
