Julia Veenstra is a Canadian artist whose work is found in collections around the world. Julia has lived in four different countries, and brings the influences of each to her impressionistic representational, and lively style. Her work reflects the joy she sees in her surroundings, and so her medium of choice is acrylic as she enjoys the immediacy and the bright colours.

In the past few years, Julia’s work has highlighted her native Canada’s vivid landscapes, leading to nationwide recognition. Most days you can find Julia in her studio, a converted garage, at her home on Beach Boulevard in Hamilton.

Artist Statement

There is a moment in time that when remembered gives comfort or reassurance. A smell can transport one back into a deep memory and stir up emotions of all kinds.

I am attracted to those moments that create comfort, those scents that cause a rush of deep memories. As a child (a creative one) who was raised by a single mom on welfare, there were so many dreams of home and a longing for security. On walks through other neighbourhoods I would be dreaming of the whole families that must live inside. These walks are some of my first memories of observing the world around me.  Over time, this defined the moments that held rich and satisfying experiences  real or imagined.

As an artist I love to translate those special moments. Moments that will transport me to an understanding of wholeness and peace.   Whether it is how the light hits the trees and the shapes of the shadows stretching long on the fields or the manmade shapes of homes erected for a purpose of housing loved ones.  My work reflects, consciously or not, a connection with ones past or a time of security.  Wholeness is explored not by tradition but by what fulfills.

I work with vibrant colour and expressive strokes, exploring shape and form as well as the constant desire to portray light.  The works often develop their own life and the paint creates shapes and detail that I had not planned on but complete and round out the experience.  The canvases I paint can be quite large and the result is the ability to experiment with a range of tools that create variety of texture and interest in the pieces and can pull from me an energy and joy.  Negative shape plays a role as important as the positive and develops from the layering technique that I employ.

Home is different to every person.  But we all have connecting experiences that cause us to collectively remember and feel safe.  We reflect a creation of beauty and of seasons that continuously march on.  I hope to reflect in my work moments that cause a stirring in a person’s heart. Moments that were noticed and stored.

Kelly Fik is a Canadian artist who was born in 100 Mile House in 1985. She was first introduced to soapstone when she was only 10 years old by pure accident and is entirely self taught.

Her first piece of stone was a small chunk that she found. Discovering that the rock was soft and malleable, she naturally started carving it into a small dolphin using only a box cutter. Carving soapstone ignited a passion within her and she was desperate to find more stone. She contacted a local soapstone artist who agreed to sell her some of his personal raw soapstone. The next challenge she took on was a full chess set which she sculpted with only basic tools at only 11 years of age. Throughout the rest of her childhood, she created many other sculptures including an otter, deer and bear.

In 2003 she graduated from high school and moved to Kelowna after graduation and currently lives in Oliver, BC. She works with the natural shape of the stone to choose what it will become and loves sculpting animals the most.

Artist Statement:

My primary medium that I sculpt is soapstone and alabaster from all parts of the world. The rock that I have worked with has been quite diverse from smooth brown Brazilian soapstone to dense black African soapstone to Indian stone that is green with black granular particles throughout. The stone comes in colours and textures that are mesmerizing. Feeling the stone in my hands is one of my favorite parts of sculpting. The textured stone carries so much personality and the smooth stone is silky to the touch.

My sculptures are created from a single raw chunk of soapstone and I use saws, Dremel’s, chisels, rasps, and sandpaper to cutback the stone. I finish everything in beeswax because it is all natural and smells so delicious.

I honesty cannot explain why I love sculpting so much, it comes from a deep place that really cannot be articulated into words. It is always something I have been drawn to since I was a young girl and time just melts away when I am sculpting. There is something truly special about taking a natural rock created by nature and sculpting it into a representation of nature.

I have been sculpting soapstone for twenty-five years just for the pure enjoyment I feel when I am creating, and I hope they bring people the same joy they bring me.