Exhibition: In Dialogue with Vivian Lindoe
My latest work on exhibit at The Salmon Arm Arts Centre. These pieces were created to highlight the work of Vivian Lindoe, an artist who has arguably been under-celebrated.
“In 2018 and 2019, the Arts Council’s Community Collection received two significant donations of serigraphs by Vivian Lindoe. Research on Lindoe’s artistic life was not fruitful, as not much had been written about her both before and after her moving to Salmon Arm. She remains an enigma, with some elder residents recalling only a few details about her life. With a limited biography, these new serigraphs expand the story of Lindoe and her artmaking while living in her tiny cabin at the foot of Mt. Ida.” - Tracey Kutschker, from the Curator’s Statement
Lost Lake Tadpoles II 24 x 24 oil on canvas by Sara Wiens
available at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre
This piece was created in response to Lindoe’s patterns and shapes of nature.
Viewing Vivian’s works for the first time, I was immediately drawn to her colours and shapes, and had to see the works in person while they were still being framed. The story of how Vivian lived and worked at some point in Salmon Arm was also fascinating, even more so after I did some research and found only a skeletal accounting of her life as an artist. You’ll find her in the Alberta Foundation for the Arts online database, but in most spaces she is mentioned, if at all, as part of “The Calgary Group”, as first wife of ceramicist Luke Lindoe, as mother and grandmother to two professional artists: Caroll Taylor-Lindoe and Damien Moppett. The names of these other artists being more well known.
Lost Lake Tadpoles I 24 x 24 oil on canvas by Sara Wiens
available at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre
Although I tried to keep to Lindoe’s subtle palette of colours, this pair of pieces have a strong contrast of light and dark.
This had me wondering about the life of this woman whose talents had been so briefly celebrated, yet who had created an artistic legacy for proceeding generations. It had me wondering about the unacknowledged talents of many women whose everyday expressions of creativity go uncelebrated and unrecorded. Lindoe’s serigraph images remind me of the type of art you would find in home decorating magazines today. Her colour palette and simplified shapes are the trend right now, 40 years after they were created.
Lighthouse Park 24 x 24 oil on canvas by Sara Wiens
available at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre
In these next two pieces, I tried to capture the shapes and colours of Lindoe’s serigraph entitled, Arctic (pictured at the end).
Like Vivian Lindoe, I work with inspiration from nature and am practicing ways of simplifying shapes. With this connection in mind, I have created three pairs of paintings that reflect on different patterns or shapes in nature. I have tried to stick to her muted palette but found myself steering more toward my own love of contrasting value in all but one of the pieces. I’m satisfied with the results regardless.
Kalamalka Lake 24 x 24 oil on canvas by Sara Wiens
available at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre
My works are from photographs I took by the water. First there are two paintings of Western Toad tadpoles from Lost Lake, Whistler. These tadpoles presented as masses of dark purple against the sand. Secondly, I created two paintings of rocks along the water’s edge trying to emphasize the shapes of the rocks and the patterns of reflections in the water. These paintings are from Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver and Kalamalka Lake, Vernon.
Columbia River 24 x 24 oil on canvas by Sara Wiens
available at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre
This piece is finally closer to the softness of Lindoe’s colour scheme.
The final two pieces are of pebbles or mussel shells underwater, one from Whytecliff Park, West Vancouver and the other from the Columbia River, Fairmont Hot Springs. Again, I tried to focus on repeated patterns and shapes while working with Vivian’s palette.
Mussels, Whytecliff Park, 24 x 24 oil on canvas by Sara Wiens
available at the Salmon Arm Arts Centre
Each painting is from my own photographs taken while travelling throughout the province of British Columbia. This final piece keeps exploring simple forms and shapes.
Hopefully my own pieces can be a part of bringing more attention to the work of Vivian Lindoe and help to highlight her creative work and the beauty that she sought to bring to the world through her art.
From my vision board, the original cut out picture of Lindoe’s serigraph, Arctic that I was given to respond to. Such simple, beautiful shapes and contemporary colours despite being originally created in 1979. I hope to write again about my process for creating a response to this work.
Until then,
Sara
Sara Wiens is an artist currently based in Salmon Arm who works in oil, acrylic and mixed media. She has her BA in Studio Arts and Bachelor of Arts Education from UBC, Vancouver. She has shown her work at various galleries in her home province of British Columbia, taught art for many years, and contributed to several community art projects.