Picture sets on Flickr
About the artists
TJ Watt
Born and raised in beautiful Metchosin, BC, conservation photographer TJ Watt couldn’t imagine calling any other place home. The wild spaces and natural beauty of the town have spurred a life long love and appreciation for our Island’s incredible natural ecosystems. TJ combines his passion for photography as well as the environment by documenting BC’s endangered old-growth forests for the Ancient Forest Alliance, of which he is also a co-founder. His photos have been featured internationally while most recently winning Outdoor Photography Canada’s “Human Impact” themed photo contest with a striking image of clearcut logging on Vancouver Island. To view more of his photos check out his website. Visit www.
Roger St. Pierre
Currently a Training Development Specialist Officer in the Canadian Navy, I have been an amateur photographer for over 30 years. I started when I was 16 when I bought my first DSLR, a 35mm Yashica camera. It is only a few years ago that I bought my first digital camera, a Pentax Optio 33WR, which I used extensively when going back to photography after several years of relative inactivity. More recently I purchased a DSLR, the Pentax K10D. A visual artist at heart, I do oil painting, life drawing and like to do mostly landscape, cityscape and nature photography as a hobby. www.regor.zenfolio.com
Tony Austin
Tony has been taking photographs of Metchosin for many years and his photos always capture the essence of the moment, be it a river otter bounding or a runner crossing the finish line. He has made many contributions to the Metchosin Muse and captured the split second rapture of an athlete’s success during many Island races.
Gretchen Markle
Gretchen Markle was born and raised in a small mining town in Northern Ontario. In 1976, she moved to Vancouver Island. The isolation and beauty of both locales had a profound and lasting effect on her art making. In 2010, she moved to the South Shore of Nova Scotia, which presented her with a whole new world of landscapes and shapes to excite her imagination. In April, 2012, she moved back to her beloved Vancouver Island, taking with her wonderful memories of the Atlantic coast. Finally, in 2013 she moved to Gabriola, a beautiful island just off the eastern coast of Vancouver Island in the Salish Sea.
Her earliest inspiration came from Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, particularly Lawren Harris, who captured the soul of her native Algoma in paint. Later influences include such artists as Richard Diebenkorn, Wolf Kahn, and Fritz Scholder, as well as lesser-known contemporaries Will Julsing and Marianne Brabanski.
Because of her deep connection with the natural world, much of Markle’s work is landscape. However, whether landscape or figurative, representational or abstract, her pieces are an attempt to move beyond the boundaries of mere picture making to a consideration of deeper issues: a feeling of wonder and a sense of responsibility. www.gretchenmarkle.com
Frank Mitchell
Frank has retired from the world of economics and devoted himself helping maintain Metchosin’s rural nature. He has also enthusiastically delved into the mysteries of music and art, taking up both piano and painting. His caricatures of the Men of Metchosin were much prized. Like most people in Metchosin, he is a soft touch if a worthy cause is in need of an auction item, and Diana the Pig and the Community House were two such hotly contested pieces.
Gala Milne
Gala was raised in Metchosin and yearns to return home someday. She is a student at SFU in communications where she has won contests for her videos and photographs. In 2009 she raised $5000 for charity through the “Agents for Change”, an SFU organisation which supports microcredit opportunities in third world countries. As part of the fund raising she cycled 4000 km from Amsterdam to Istanbul. She has supplied her lino block prints for several Metchosin Foundation events. Gala’s blog: salted lion http://galasarah.wordpress.com