Bloom - Portraits of a Garden is a retrospective of 28 acrylic paintings by local artists Joyce Dorey, which opens with a reception Thursday, April 5 at 7 p.m. at SAGA Public Art Galley and runs April 7 to 28.
For Dorey, an honours graduate of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, the show is the culmination of many years of sitting in her garden making sketches, followed by countless hours of concentrated work at her easel.
“My paintings are more about feelings and emotions than the simple reproduction of an image,” she says. “Each idea, each subject comes together as one experience in a painting, one trip through the garden.”
Dorey adds that it is the view from her garden and the quality of light she experiences there that inspires her to create her often larger-than-life paintings.
“I also make a lot of notes to myself in my sketch books. Not only do my sketches serve as references when I go to paint, but my notes are able to take me back to the moment – back to that headspace where
“I was inspired to create the painting. It all stems from an idea and a moment in time.”
Dorey says that no matter where she goes, where she travels, she is always drawn back to the Shuswap.
“Besides, the longer you stay in one spot, the more you see.”
She is quick to point out too that “painting flowers in my own garden doesn’t take any- where near the amount of energy it does to pack up and traipse off to paint somewhere else. My garden grounds me.”
She smiles when she says that her flowers are her babies – that they fulfill a nurturing instinct.
As a child, Dorey says she used to paint pictures of the horses that lived on the homestead where she grew up.
“When I graduated from high school, I just thought I would continue and go on to art school,” she says. “But somehow life got in the way. I was in my early 50s when I eventually got to Emily Carr.”
Dorey has also studied art at the Winnipeg School of Art and Okanagan University College.
Although admittedly influenced to some extent by the works of Emily Carr and Georgia O’Keeffe, since graduating from art school, Dorey has worked hard to establish her own unique style. Her paintings of Oriental poppies, lilies and irises from her garden are full of organic colours, lines and shapes that seem to come alive and draw you into her world.
Dorey’s paintings have sold all over the world.
SAGA Public Art Galley director/curator Tracey Kutschker says the gallery is excited to be presenting this show of Dorey’s paintings. Although a retrospective, the show includes 12 new works.
“Dorey has immersed herself in her subject matter for many years,” says Kutschker. “The show is a visual journey that reflects the peace and beauty she has been able to find in her garden.”