Memory and Imagination, the latest show of Sofie Skapski's art at the Zocalo Cafe and Gallery, runs from Dec. 9 to Jan. 12. Opening night is Dec. 14 from 7 till 9 p.m. Sofie will be on hand to meet and greet and discuss the works on display.
Aside from their wonderful beverages, Zocalo Cafe has a full menu as well as a tasty tapas menu to order from, as you take in the art and entertainment on offer. Jazz trio Loose Gravel will perform, filling out a rewarding evening.
Skapski is well known for her evocative paintings of trees, branches held high to catch pieces of sky, sun dappling through to the forest floor, and her dramatic closeups of exotic and wild flowers. Memory and imagination is a bit of a departure as it explores tenuous ideas of the resonance of residual memory that can be attached to a place and time.
These paintings have the same warmth of colour and softness as one has come to expect in Sofie's work, and the same grounding in nature and expressive representationalism.
People are an important element in these paintings as well — their interactions with the landscape, the memories, and the world opened up by the imagination. A series of square foot exotic flowers is also on display.
Zocalo Cafe and Gallery is at the corner of Fifth and Cliffe in Courtenay. If you can't make the opening, drop by as many times as you like during the month the show is on display. There is always something new to discover: a nuance in a work that may not initially be apparent.
Sofie Skapski's work can also be found at South Hollow Gallery on Fifth Street and the Comox Valley Art Gallery Gift Shop and their Christmas Craft Market. You can also visit her website at sofieskaski.com.
— Sophie Skapski