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.

Crystal Rassi is an award winning and internationally collected, fine arts painter. She has been published in various magazines since she was a teen and taught community art classes in Saskatchewan prior to moving to North Vancouver where she and her family now reside.

Crystal was born and raised in Saskatchewan and traveled through three prairie provinces for her education in fine arts and architecture. After receiving her Bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Manitoba, she acquired a Celta certificate for ESL in Toronto. Instead of traveling abroad to teach ESL, she and her husband raised their two kids in Saskatchewan where she had been working in design while also painting, showing and selling her work, and teaching art. The transition to British Columbia has been an easy one and felt like home right away. Her current surroundings heavily influence her latest works.

Crystal uses her education and passion for residential architecture to permeate her artwork that conveys unique expressions of Canadian culture and landscape. Her architectural subjects are sometimes personified, or can exist solely as objects that tell stories about climate, social idioms and nuances, or economic concerns. They are often juxtaposed in a landscape that helps tell the story. Her paintings have an ambience of nostalgia that one can get lost in and her whimsically serious style is her signature that makes her art most relatable.

About this collection of Okanagan summer paintings: 
Ripe for Picking - Oil on deep canvas - 18 x 36: I think it's obvious that the houses in this painting are like peaches.  But these quaint houses reflect the real-estate market - homes that are ready to sell.  We can just hope that they don't fall off the market before they drop.

Summer Home - Oil on deep canvas - 24 x 18: I have the fondest memories of picking peaches with my parents in Penticton during a summer road trip they took me on when I was sixteen. It's a memory I have often and dreamed of having a summer home in the Okanagan Valley one day.  This painting is a depiction of the very best memories I have.

Balance - Oil on deep canvas - 36 x 24: When talking about the Okanagan, wine is usually involved in the conversation. For wine enthusiasts, talk about the perfect balance of flavours can be a critique of a great wine. But, more theoretically, the balance of the barrels represents the need for us to balance our consumption, whether it be drinking, or eating out, or shopping, amongst many other things. A life balance is important to maintain a sane, healthy life but it can be a challenge to do.

Red or White - Oil on deep canvas - 24 x 18: The Okanagan Valley is known to be home to some of Canada's best vineyards. It's difficult to have a true valley experience without a little wine tasting. The houses in the wine glasses represent the people who visit these wineries and who prefer certain tastes of wine. 

Born in 1944, Tim Hall has had a love affair with painting and drawing since his childhood in New Zealand.  Other family members are also talented artists: both his mother and his sister paint.  Tim paints in oils.  His preferred style is realism.

“Painting to me is a celebration of the beauty of nature…  I use my skills to portray it as realistically as possible and apply my creative freedom to balance and emphasize where necessary...  I am particularly intrigued with wilderness scenery.”

Tim’s appreciation for  natural beauty has been enhanced by his profession as a land surveyor in Canada and New Zealand.  Surveying  has enabled him to travel and work in many magnificent areas where the innocence of nature remains.

Tim lived with his wife in the country near Princeton, B.C and has recently relocated to Penticton.  His paintings are  found in collections in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Australia & New Zealand.