Badlands painter showcases in Revelstoke art show

Shannon LeClair

Times Reporter

 

Rosebud artist Valerie Speer was one of six artists who took part in the informal part of Revelstoke B.C.’s Art in the Park Program in Yoho National

Park this past summer. Her final artwork of the Yoho National Park is on display at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre, and was launched during the Gala on Nov. 12 in celebration of the 125 anniversary of Yoho and Glacier National Parks.  

“It’s just really just a chance to kind of get recognized with this group in B.C. because I haven’t done that before, and to kind of expand maybe the field of interest of people that might be interested in my work,” said Speer.

Though Speer had taken fine arts at the Okanagan College, she become discouraged about what the potential to make a living as an artist was. She took an audiovisual communications program and built a career doing video production and photography. It was after she had kids that she began to dabble with her art again. 

“I guess my finger was always in doing something artistic like that visually, but I didn’t continue painting steadily through that whole time. I’d just say it was the last 11 years that I started taking it more seriously and painting,” said Speer.

She was afraid it would be difficult to get back into her art, and started off by doing realistic drawings of her kids. She felt if she could pull it off successfully that she still had it. 

Speer is a self-proclaimed immersionist, preferring to spend a few days familiarizing herself with an area she would like to paint, getting a real sense of the area. 

“I think it’s one thing to look at a photograph, or drive past an environment that you want to reflect. To actually live in it for a few days and kind of really get a good feel, that’s how I prefer to work,” said Speer.

She said she enjoys painting the prairie because she feels there is so much movement that she tries to capture in her work. 

“Though I do landscapes, my point isn’t to do a realistic rendition, I’m not about that. What I’m trying to do is just capture a feeling about the experience,” said Speer. 

“I tend to focus on trying to simplify the landscape that I’m painting, focus on lighting and the mood that, that invokes.”  

Speer’s work can be found under the fine arts link on www.rosebud.ca. Her work can also be found on Facebook under Valerie Speer-Immersionist, though she warns it is a new thing for her, and there isn’t much available on the site yet. 

Speer’s artwork will be on display at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Center until Dec. 2.