For the month of July, the Comox Valley Art Gallery welcomes artist Perrin Sparks from Quadra Island.
Her portraits will be featured in the Arts and Crafts Gallery from July 2 to 27. Please join us for a special welcoming day on Wednesday July 2 during which Perrin will be drawing live portraits in charcoal from 1 to 3 p.m. (call to reserve a spot).
The same afternoon, the gallery will host a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. so that you have the opportunity to view the artwork and meet her while she is present to converse and answer questions.
Perri (only her mother calls her Perrin!) honed her skills based on the background of BA in Fine Art from Syracuse University (Syracuse, N.Y.), Masters in Medical Illustration from the Johns Hopkins University Medical School (Baltimore) and 27 years as a medical artist specializing in surgical illustration.
Perri worked at Stanford Medical School (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas) before moving to Dallas, Texas, to take on the job as director of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School’s Art Department.
For 17 years she served there on the faculty in the Graduate School Program in Biomedical Communication.
After this career of working as a surgical artist and portraying anatomy for limited color production, Sparks now enjoys creating full-sized figurative paintings and working with a live model. She works in pastels, due to the colourful quality.
Pastels have also forced her to think in terms of bolder gestures due to the constraints of the medium. She was introduced to oil painting driven by portrait commission requests.
In November 2005, she and her new husband moved from Texas to their lakeside home on Quadra Island and in 2006 they opened Lake Haven Atelier and Art Retreat.
To reserve a spot to sit for Perrin Sparks’ charcoal portrait drawing session on July 6, contact the CV Art Gallery. CVAG is located at 580 Duncan Avenue in downtown Courtenay.
For details, phone 250-338-6211.
— Comox Valley Art Gallery