For the month of July, Zocalo Café and Gallery on the corner of Cliffe Avenue and Fifth Street in Courtenay is hosting an exhibition of photographic Images of Light by Comox Valley photographers Christina Nienaber-Roberts and Keith Roberts.
The couple aim, with their work, to share their deep love of and communion with the natural world, as well as their passion for travel and photography. Both have the uncanny ability to capture light in nature in a way that comes alive on canvas to provoke a deep resonance within the viewer.
Their photographic images and artwork have been included in exhibitions in South Africa, the Sultanate of Oman where they both worked as geologists in the 1990s, as well as in the U.K. where Keith hails from — and in Victoria and Vancouver.
They have also and a number of their images published internationally and received commissions for their pen and ink drawings for books and calendars.
Most of the images in this exhibition were taken in Seal Bay Park, although a few are not local. One, Angel in the Lane, taken in the botanical gardens in Pietermaritzburg – the capitol of Kwa-Zulu Natal, where Christina was born and lived until graduating from the University of Natal in 1975.
This image creates a response for most viewers even before reading the inscription on the canvas, which tells a little of the story behind it:
“Love is All There Is… (Last words of Miep Nienaber-Luitingh, July 2002). This photograph was taken by Christina Nienaber-Roberts straight after sprinkling her mother’s ashes.”
The reader’s eyes are drawn through a natural cathedral of majestic plane trees to what reminds one of a diffuse stained glass window of an angel.
This image also adorns the cover of Christina’s first book, Messages of Love: Stories around a Mother’s Passing, in which she shares more about the amazing events during that final stage of their journey together in this lifetime.
The image entitled Snow Angel, on the other hand, was taken in Seal Bay Park on a cold Winter Solstice morning, close to the couple’s home. Christina had her camera focused on the path and was just about to call her canine companion, Jabulani, to capture her running around the corner in the snow.
Then, unexpectedly, a branch dipped, shedding its load of crystalline powder. Jabulani did make it into the exhibition, though – in the popular image called The Way Home.
All the images in the exhibition are for sale and can be purchased directly from the artists.
For more information, also on Christina’s current work as Natural Health Practitioner sharing Sacred Movement, Kripalu Yoga, Yoga from Chronic Pain Relief, Energy Work and Doula Services, or about workshops and walking the Labyrinth at The Heart Gate, or to purchase Christina’s books, call 250-890-9008 or connect via www.relaxandfeelradiant.com.
At the end of July the exhibition will return to Becky’s Country Bakery on Anderton Road, for the month of August.
Some of the couple’s images may also be viewed at The Heart Gate, Seal Bay area (by appointment) or at Highland Valley Family Clinic on the corner of Anderton and Guthrie.