Discover a world of beauty at this year’s Harmony Arts Festival
For more than two decades, The Harmony Arts Festival, presented by Odlum Brown Limited, has created opportunities for visitors to participate in a wide array of visual arts experiences at this highly anticipated event in West Vancouver each summer. Visitors can enjoy the chance to create art, purchase one-of-a-kind artwork, learn and be inspired at one of the many workshops, and be exposed to the featured works of talented artists of all ages.
ArtSpeaks, sponsored by British Pacific Properties, includes workshops and lecture series and provides opportunities for festival visitors to interact and learn from well-known artists. The workshops are either free or at a low-cost, and offer guests the chance to try everything from wood carving to watercolour painting.
As part of ArtSpeaks, sponsored by British Pacific Properties, be sure to check out Slow Clothes: the Art of Fashion by Wearable Arts Vancouver on August 3. The fashion show will feature unique artist made clothing, jewellery and accessories by well-known North Shore and Metro Vancouver fibre and jewellery artists. This popular show starts at 1 p.m. on the West Vancouver Community Foundation Stage in John Lawson Park.
Art Beat, sponsored by the Ledcor Group, pairs artists with local businesses to transform their storefronts into gallery spaces. Working in partnership with the Ambleside Dundarave Business Improvement Association (ADBIA), over 35 businesses will be participating in Art Beat this year. A special Art Beat Street Celebration will be held on July 30 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. with musical street performers and sidewalk activations.
One of signature events of the festival is the Always Best Care Senior Services Art Market, running both weekends from July 29-August 1 & August 5-7 along Argyle Avenue. This high-quality art market features over 70 artisans. Visitors enjoy viewing and purchasing unique art works directly from the artist themselves. For a complete list of participating artists and the dates they will appear at the festival, please visit: http://harmonyarts.ca/art/art-market
Some of the highlighted artists who are participating include:
Bill Jamieson of Anthony Jamieson Design Studio (Architectural glass)
www.anthonyjamieson.ca
Bill Jamieson has been creating works of art using glass for more than 20 years. Since he began working with the medium, Jamieson and his partner, Michael Anthony have been fascinated with the way light and the alchemy of heat, movement and timing combined with luck and technical precision come together to create a fully realized piece of art. Creating architectural glass by sand casting in the kiln, Jamieson’s work challenges and reflects the perceptions of the world around us and engages each person who sees it in a unique way. Bill Jamieson will be at the Art Walk both weekends of the festival.
Neil Hamelin
Neil Hamelin Fine Art Painting
www.neilhamelin.com
Canadian artist Neil Hamelin finds his inspiration in using weathered wood and rust and flaking paint to tell stories from our past. His acrylic paintings of rusted vehicles and the battered hulls of broken ships hint at forgotten stories and the colour and shape of distant memories. A self-taught artist, Hamelin challenges himself to notice the beauty in battered objects and to find stories in subjects and images that might otherwise be ignored. Neil Hamelin will be at the Art Walk both weekends of the festival.
Bettina Matkuhn
www.bettinamatzkuhn.ca
Bettina Matzkuhn has worked in textiles for over 35 years and especially enjoys experimenting with embroidery and fabric collage. Her creations continue in the long tradition of using textiles to tell personal stories, and many of her works illuminate hiking experiences, events in her neighbourhood and a variety of strange but true stories. Bettina is also an award-winning filmmaker whose three projects for the National Film Board explored intersections between animation and textile imagery. Bettina will be at the Art Walk during the second weekend of the festival.
Diane Tordjman & Ehud Mader
Yutal Jewellery Fusion
www.yutal.com
Diane Tordjman and Ehud Mader are a husband and wife creative team who make finely crafted jewellery inspired by the classical designs of traditional Yemenite jewellery from their native Israel. Mader is an 8th generation goldsmith and Tordjman studied technological jewellery making in Tel Aviv before moving to the west coast of Canada. Their contemporary art is a fusion of classical influences tempered by the west coast landscape and culture. Tordjman and Mader will be at the Art Walk both weekends of the festival.
