Alpenglow Arts Festival

Friday September 5, 2025

SATURDAY September 6, 2025

SUNDAY September 7, 2025

Friday September 5, 2025

Creativity Photo Workshop
Feel like the path you’re on leaves no room for creativity? Forgotten what it’s like to use your imagination? Then this is the workshop for you. Greg Gerla and Greg Fulmes - have spent 35 years each travelling the world making pictures for a living, and not really ever “working” a day in their careers. Photographing and meeting cool people, places, and moments and just living the creative life, the Greg's truly believe everyone, EVERYONE is creative!!!

Learn how to free yourself from the idea of shooting the “right” photo or taking a picture the “right” way. Rediscover your creativity, improve your image making, and hone your creative process.

Website: InSight Creative Workshops 

Location: Sun Peaks Centre Board Room
Time: 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Price: FREE, Registration is Required



Painting Workshop - Doug Levitt 
In this four-hour workshop, renowned artist Doug Levitt will present how to execute an alla prima (wet into wet) painting. Each student can bring a fresh canvas and a reference to work on to practice this approach. Doug will begin the workshop with a one-hour portrait demonstration of his technique, followed by practical work on the part of the students. Particular focus will be spent on how to block in an alla prima painting and good colour use to build the full range of the subject.

Doug will have his oil paints handy and available for your use if you don’t have your own. And extra brushes will be provided if needed. Otherwise, Doug says you’re welcome to stick to what you are used to and bring your own equipment.

Location: Sun Peaks Centre Stage
*South end of the venue
Time: 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Price: FREE, Registration is Required

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 6, 2025

SmartPhone Workshop
Which camera is best? The one you have with you. And which cameras do we have with us 24/7? Our SmartPhone cameras. This workshop will inspire you to create incredible images you’ll be proud to hang on your wall. Learn to enhance, modify, and manipulate your pictures – using some cool apps – and take your SmartPhone photography to the next level. You’ll also learn the limitations of SmartPhone cameras and how to work around them.

Greg Gerla and Greg Fulmes have a combined professional photography career of over six decades, making pictures for clients all over the world. Yet, which camera do they find themselves shooting with most often? Like you, their SmartPhones. The better these cameras get, the more they use them.

Website: InSight Creative Workshops 

Location: Sun Peaks Centre Board Room
Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm
Price: FREE, Registration is Required



Resin Window Art - Art Laurenson
Create a Take-Home Work of Art
Create your own resin artwork under the guidance of Jasper-based, mixed-media artist Art Laurenson. No artistic talent required! Art will guide you through creating your own resin/glass creation. We’ll use 8x10 picture frames and a range of materials to put in the resin - you can even bring your own. By the end of this two-to-three-hour session, you’ll be able to take home a finished 8x10 piece of art to enjoy for years to come. 

Note: Artist resin is still epoxy but not as smelly. It smells about the same as a can of house paint and cleans up with mineral spirits. Nitrile or Latex gloves will be provided.

What to bring: Participants are encouraged to bring a bib, smock or old shirt to wear. Those with high chemical or latex sensitivities, please let us know. You're welcome to bring your own bits and bobs if you have a specific theme in mind, or use the items provided. 

Location: Hearthstone Lodge - Mount Tod Boardroom
Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm
Price: FREE, Registration is Required

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 7, 2025

Mastering the Basics of your DSLR/Mirrorless Camera
Unlock the full potential of your DSLR/mirrorless camera in this hands-on, beginner-friendly workshop. The DSLR isn’t as intimidating and complex as it can seem. Whether you're new to photography or looking to move beyond Auto mode, this session will introduce you to the basic functions and controls of your camera. You’ll also learn the basic rules of composition – when to use them and when to break them – and explore the next level of creativity you and your camera are capable of reaching - together.

By the end of the workshop, you'll have the confidence to shoot in manual mode and start capturing more intentional, well-composed photos.

Website: InSight Creative Workshops 

Location: Sun Peaks Centre Board Room
Time: 11:00am to 2:00pm
Price: FREE, Registration is Required



Painting Workshop - Cheryl Christian
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to create your very own painting on canvas? Whether you’re a complete beginner, sharpening your skills, or an active artist looking for fresh ideas, this fun, hands-on acrylic painting class is for you!

With step-by-step guidance from celebrated acrylic artist Cheryl Christian, you’ll learn techniques and explore your own creativity. No experience needed — just bring your curiosity and enthusiasm!

Location: Hearthstone Lodge - Mount Tod Boardroom
Time: 11:00am to 2:00pm
SOLD OUT

Jody Bruce

Medium: Painting

Okanagan-based artist Jody Bruce draws inspiration from the beauty and spirit of nature. In a world where untouched landscapes are rare, she reimagines them by removing roads, buildings, and people, revealing the land’s pure essence. Her creative process begins with exploring and predetermining colours, carefully balancing their relationships, and working in linear patterns that merge fluidity with control.

Jody’s emotions and daily experiences shape and challenge her style, infusing each piece with personal resonance. She is especially drawn to the moon’s energy, mystery, and beauty—symbolized by the circular form often present in her work. Whether depicting the moon or sun, her brushstrokes radiate from the circle outward, carrying the energy to the canvas edges.

Her trees, distinctive and full of motion, appear to dance—linking life above the earth to life below, even in the stillness of winter, when nature rests yet quietly breathes.
Website

Cheryl Christian

Medium: Painting

Cheryl Christian is an accomplished acrylic artist known for her vibrant abstracts and striking landscapes inspired by the beauty of British Columbia. Her creative journey began in the signage industry, where she honed her design skills before founding her own business, Cheryl’s Sign and Design. In 2015, she reignited her passion for painting, embracing acrylics as her primary medium.

For Cheryl, the canvas is a sacred space—a place to explore techniques that capture the interplay of light, colour, and texture. Her abstract works aim to evoke emotion and spark memories, inviting viewers into a vivid, imaginative world.

Deeply engaged in her community, Cheryl is active with Sun Peaks ART ZONE and The Kamloops Arts Council, regularly showcasing her work in venues including The Art We Are, The Vic, Royal Inland Hospital, and even Vancouver International Airport. Each piece reflects her love of nature, colour, and creative expression.
FACEBOOK

Laura Colpitts

Medium: Photography
Laura is a photographer whose work is rooted in connection to the natural world. With an eye for colour and composition, she explores both literal and abstract representations of nature, inviting viewers to experience familiar landscapes in new and unexpected ways.

Her photographs move beyond technical precision, sometimes embracing an almost painterly feel. Increasingly, Laura’s practice has shifted toward such abstraction, capturing patterns, textures, and moments that reveal the hidden dimensions within natural subjects.

Living near the mountains in Alberta provides Laura with a rich and varied canvas, while her travels across Canada have expanded her appreciation of wonderful and diverse landscapes.

The works in this exhibition reflect her evolving vision—with an emphasis on the ‘glow’ that lights up from within.
WEBSITE

Chris Cran

Medium: Painting
Chris Cran, RCA, is a Canadian visual artist based in Calgary, Alberta. A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design (1979), he has exhibited widely across Canada and internationally. Recent exhibitions include the Nickle Galleries at the University of Calgary, the Glenbow Museum (2019), Mylona Gallery in Zurich, Switzerland (2018), and the National Gallery of Canada (2016), which presented a major survey of his work from 1984–2016, following earlier exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Alberta and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (2015).

Cran has received numerous honours, including the ACAD Alumni Award of Excellence (2011), the Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award (2014), and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s Lawrence J. Burpee Medal (2018). He was awarded an Honorary Master of Fine Art from Alberta University of the Arts (2021) and the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal (Alberta, 2022). Cran is represented by Trépanier Baer Gallery (Calgary), Clint Roenisch Gallery (Toronto), and Wilding Cran Gallery (Los Angeles).
Website

Ken Farrar

Medium: Painter
Ken Farrar is a long time resident of Kamloops, British Columbia. Ken began sketching
and painting at an early age. His formal education concluded with a four year graduation
from the Alberta College of Art, Calgary in 1972.  After graduating he honed his skills as
a commercial artist, a discipline reflected in his variety of media, techniques and subjects.
Ken was also employed for several years as an artist at the Edmonton Alberta Provincial
Museum.  His artistic accomplishments in phosphorescent acrylic are presently being recognized in Kamloops, across British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. The subjects of his painting vary from local landscapes, wildlife and the pristine landscapes of the north.

 My paintings are unique as they self-illuminate in the dark. I achieved this result by developing a process of adding phosphorescent components to acrylic paint. It took several years to develop this process, which allows paintings to appear brighter in darkness than they do in daylight with no external source of light,. This glow effect lasts for periods of up to eight hours and is simply repeated by again exposing the paintings to a source of light. I have found this to be a natural medium for painting the Northern Lights, sunsets and seascapes. 
Website

Greg Fulmes

Medium: Photography
Raised in a small Saskatchewan town of 1,800, Greg’s love for observing life began on street corners with his father, watching the world go by. That early curiosity grew into a 30+ year career as a photographer, picture editor, and educator. His work for newspapers, magazines, and wire services has taken him to four continents, capturing the beauty of humanity—from families in remote El Salvador villages to Fortune 500 CEOs.

Greg’s travels to Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala sparked a deep connection to the people of the “third world” and a commitment to helping them reclaim their traditions from corporate influence. Currently, he’s pursuing personal projects: The H-Project, challenging labels and prejudice, and The 364 ¼ Project, amplifying veterans’ voices and stories.

Reflecting on his journey, Greg says, “I’m quite literally living my dreams. Don’t pinch me; I don’t want to wake up from this one.”
Website

Greg Gerla

Medium: Photography
Based in Calgary, Alberta, Canadian photographer Greg Gerla works in both commercial and fine art photography, creating images that evoke mood through meticulous craft and style. Represented by several stock agencies, his work has been published worldwide and exhibited locally and internationally.

From 2004 to 2021, Greg taught in the Photography Department at the Alberta University of the Arts, Faculty of Visual Communications. He also played an active role in the photographic community, serving on the National Board of CAPIC (Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators) from 2002 to 2016, including as Prairie Chapter president (2004–2007), and on the board of the Exposure Photography Festival (2010–2019).

An avid traveler, Greg has photographed journeys spanning Moscow, Los Angeles, Cuba, and Hungary. Whether exploring distant countries or his own backyard, he remains inspired by the beauty and stories found both close to home and across the world.
Website

Terri Heinrichs

Medium: Painting
White space. Negative space. The in-between. In art, these spaces give form and meaning; in life, they shape what we treasure. Winter makes spring remarkable, daily life makes vacations special, and prairies make mountains majestic—or the reverse.

Terri’s Vivid Impression series focuses on shapes of space, often framing trees within light and landscape. Thick, luscious oil paint is layered over complementary backgrounds, with gold underpainting catching the light at certain angles. A matte white and glossy black acrylic border enhances the vivid hues, creating a contemporary yet calming frame around exuberant brushstrokes.

Through these layers, Terri celebrates life’s complexity, honoring the “in-between” that sets the stage for the spectacular.

A self-taught artist, she draws inspiration from nature, her own photography, and years of exploration across mediums. Her work is fueled by curiosity, observation, and a lifelong dedication to learning and experimentation.
Website

 Leah Hennel

Medium: Photography
Leah Hennel is an award-winning photojournalist based in Calgary, Alberta, and a graduate of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s photojournalism program. For more than two decades, she has worked for Calgary’s daily newspapers and covered major international sporting events, including the Sochi and Rio Paralympic Games, the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics for Postmedia, and both the Tokyo 2020 Summer and Beijing 2022 Winter Games for the Canadian Olympic Committee.

Her work has been featured in publications worldwide, including The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Maclean’s, Canadian Geographic, Postmedia, The Narwhal, Getty Images, Reuters, and CBC.

Hennel is also the author of two acclaimed photography books: Along the Western Front, which captures life in rural Alberta, and Alone Together: A Pandemic Photo Essay, documenting the human experience during COVID-19. Her photography reflects a deep commitment to telling authentic, impactful stories.
Website

Jamie Jinsoo Kim

Medium: Painter
Jamie is an Occupational Therapist and passionate artist inspired by the landscapes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. With a lifelong artistic inclination, she has showcased her work in solo and group exhibitions, engaging with the community through events like the Montgomery Festive Market and Mount Pleasant Neighbour Day Art Exhibit.

Her dedication to fine art has earned her recognition, including an Editor’s Pick and Special Prize in Minted’s Fine Art Challenge. This experience strengthened her collaboration with editors, designers, and marketers, and deepened her expertise in transforming traditional artwork into fine art prints. She also works closely with local printers, ensuring colour accuracy and professional-quality reproductions.

Jamie’s creative process begins outdoors, hiking new trails and absorbing nature’s essence. Using raw canvas and mixed media, she captures central colours and organic forms, creating contemporary works that feel both modern and deeply rooted in the natural world.
Website

Art Laurenson

Medium: Resin
Based in Jasper, Alberta, Art Laurenson is a mixed media artist who fuses the raw beauty of glass, metal, and wood into striking, tactile works. Inspired by the rugged landscapes of the Canadian Rockies, he explores the interplay between strength and fragility, and the relationship between nature and human influence.

Each piece reflects a deep connection to both place and material, with textures, forms, and light working together to tell a story. Through Art’s skillful craftsmanship, ordinary elements are transformed into extraordinary compositions—layered, intricate, and full of presence. His work invites viewers to engage not only visually but emotionally, discovering new details and meanings with every glance.

In blending natural and industrial materials, Art creates a dialogue between what endures and what changes, offering a unique artistic perspective shaped by the wild beauty of the Rockies.
WEBSITE

YVETTE LEHMANN

Medium: Stone Artist
For Yvette Lehmann, every artwork begins with a vision rooted in the timeless beauty of nature. Fascinated by sacred geometry, crystals, agates, and geodes, she draws inspiration from the ancient geological marvels formed over millions of years. Her creative journey has evolved through mandala drawings, wearable art, resin work, and now stone-inspired pieces that capture the essence of these natural wonders.

Yvette is captivated by the way crystals grow inward to form geodes—slowly, deliberately, and beautifully. Her art reflects this process, channeling the energy and symbolism that geodes and agates have carried for centuries. Believed to offer perspective, strengthen spirituality, and alleviate stress, these natural forms embody resilience and transformation.

Through her work, Yvette invites viewers to connect with both the physical and metaphysical qualities of stone, bringing more than just an object into their homes—she offers a piece of Earth’s ancient story, interpreted through her creative vision.
WEBSITE

Doug Levitt

 Medium: Painter 
Doug Levitt is a Canadian artist specializing in alla prima and en plein air painting, driven by a passion for artistic growth and emotional impact. His diverse subjects—ranging from western history and portraiture to still life, old barns, vehicles, and Alberta’s birdlife—reflect both curiosity and a love for the stories objects and landscapes carry.

A dedicated teacher, Doug views sharing knowledge as a sacred responsibility, helping others reach their creative potential while fostering art as cultural ambassadorship. His expansive Painting Alberta series captures the province’s beauty and diversity, with recent focus on its bird species.

Doug’s achievements include creating the 2008 Calgary Stampede poster, which sold for $63,000 to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and winning multiple Stampede awards, including Artist Choice, Collectors Choice, and Best of Show. In 2013, he received the Outstanding Artistic Achievement Award, further cementing his place in Alberta’s vibrant art community.
WEBSITE

Jennifer LONG

Medium: Painter
Jenny Long is a Canadian painter recognized for her expressive abstract portraits and live performance art. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Okanagan University College in 2003 after a formative year as a Rotary exchange student in Denmark, where she discovered her passion for visual expression.

Long gained early recognition with Kelowna’s Art Ark Gallery, establishing a reputation for bold, emotive portraiture. Her career includes numerous commissions and live painting appearances at major events, such as presenting a portrait to musician John Mellencamp in 2012 and painting Jacques Villeneuve at the grand opening of Area 27 Clubhouse.

Alongside her studio practice, Long is deeply passionate about teaching through her workshop Free the Artist in You – Abstract Acrylics. From 2017 to 2023, she directed The Long Gallery + Studios in Penticton, supporting local artists. Today, she focuses on her own painting practice, collaborations, and live art at cultural festivals.

WEBSITE

Debbie Lund

Medium: Painter
Debbie Lund is a Canadian artist whose soulful paintings capture the quiet majesty of nature and the spirit of beloved animals. Raised on a remote cattle ranch in British Columbia, her art is rooted in a life spent riding horses, sketching in the backcountry, and living in harmony with the wild.

After building a life and business—then losing it during the pandemic—Debbie returned to the mountains with renewed purpose. Immersing herself in the wilderness through backpacking and painting, she seeks to preserve the light, emotion, and freedom of the untamed landscapes she calls home.

Her work invites viewers to pause, breathe, and connect with the natural world, celebrating both its beauty and its resilience.

WEBSITE

CyNTHIA MAKARA

Medium: Painter

Originally from Argentina, I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design with a specialization in Packaging Design before moving to Calgary, Alberta in 2005. My artistic journey began with studies under renowned local artists, where I developed a passion for simplifying shapes and infusing them with vibrant colour.

In 2009, I discovered encaustic painting—a captivating medium of beeswax, damar resin, and pigments—which became my signature style. Its unique depth, texture, and luminosity allow me to create paintings that feel both timeless and contemporary. Through layering, I capture shifting light and perspectives, producing dynamic works that change with illumination.

Inspired by the beauty of nature, my art reflects the serene moments of western skies, forests, mountains, and prairies. Each piece radiates tranquility, inviting viewers to connect with the magnificence of the natural world and bring that sense of peace into their own space.
WEBSITE

Branko marjanovic

Medium: Painting

Branko Marjanovic has been immersed in creative pursuits since childhood, finding art a vital form of self-expression. For over 25 years, he has lived near the Rocky Mountains, whose landscapes inspire his imagination and embody strength, determination, and serenity. With a career spanning more than four decades, Branko has developed a distinct style recognized by collectors and artists across North America and Europe.

After early experimentation with oils and watercolours, he embraced acrylics, where his bold use of colour and dramatic contrasts of light and shade became signature elements. Fascinated by nature’s interplay of brightness and shadow, he often begins with sketches to capture values before transforming them into expressive, atmospheric works.

Guided by integrity, work ethic, and a fearless approach, Branko’s philosophy is simple: “Be bold. Be fearless. Be unique.” His art reflects not just what is seen, but the mood, imagination, and emotion behind it.

Website

Cherisse Mia

Medium: Mixed Media

Cherisse Mia is a mixed-media artist whose work transforms natural materials, such as gemstones, fossils, and organic textures, with paint into immersive landscapes. Growing up with little material wealth but abundant freedom outdoors, she found inspiration in the wild landscapes around her. Fossil collecting sparked an early love for found objects, evolving into a creative practice rooted in experimentation and storytelling.

She personally sources many fossils and natural materials, kayaking and hiking to uncover these ancient remnants. This hands-on connection to nature is woven into each piece, making them about both discovery and personal expression. After the loss of her adult son in 2020, art became a profound source of healing. Blending abstract impressionism with natural elements, she creates works reflecting the resilience of nature and the human spirit. Featured in the Calgary Stampede Art Show 2025, her work is represented in galleries across North America.

Website 

Gary Nylander

Medium: Photography
Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Gary Nylander discovered his passion for photography at age 15. He went on to build a distinguished 50-year career in photojournalism and art photography, beginning at the Goldstream Gazette and later working at newspapers across Canada.

Alongside his journalism, Gary developed a personal body of black-and-white fine art photography in the West Coast tradition, with Canada as his primary subject. Using large-format film cameras ranging from 4x5 to 8x10, and later digital technology, he captures striking images with depth, texture, and timeless quality. His work has appeared in publications including Time Magazine and LensWork, and has been exhibited in both solo and group shows across Canada.

Gary’s photography has earned multiple Canadian Press awards, including Picture of the Year (2003). His print of an osprey feeding its young is held in the Harvard Art Museums, donated by John Kenneth Galbraith.
Website

Michael Perks

Medium: Metal Artist
If you asked he would call himself a snowmaker, but Michael Perks is a little more than that. He's a Red Seal Millwright with over 25 years experience in the ski industry, working primarily at Lake Louise Ski Hill. He became know for his ability to fix obscure problems with innovative inventions of his own making. This ability to think differently, create with his own hands & work with huge objects can be seen in his art. He has figured out a way to infuse stunning hand-painted colours into metal that is unlike any other metal artist out there. Combined with purposeful grinding in the metal he can make it look like water is moving, snow has ski tracks or a boat left a wake in it's tail.  Michael's portfolio includes flat wall art, elaborate statues and large public art pieces.  He has won Best In Show three times at the illustrious Calgary Stampede Fine Art show and now has more than a dozen public art statues in place across Western Canada.
WEBSITE

Alison Philpotts

Medium: Painting

Alison Philpotts is a Canadian artist specializing in large-scale acrylic landscape paintings inspired by the prairies and mountains of southern Alberta and British Columbia. 

Introduced to painting by her father, she learned techniques in colour mixing, composition, and flow, initially drawing influence from Canadian greats like Tom Thompson and A.Y. Jackson, as well as European impressionists such as Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Monet. 

Over time, she has developed her own style, using bold colours to evoke mood and emotion rather than creating exact replicas of places, aiming to forge a personal connection between the viewer and nature. Her goal is to transport viewers into the majesty and tranquility of the natural world, and her work is now held in collections across Canada and the United States.
Website

Tricia Sellmer

Medium: Painting
Tricia Sellmer is a contemporary Canadian visual artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, text, and mixed media. For more than thirty years, she has explored the extraordinary within the ordinary, making the invisible visible through layered, multi-medium works. Her art is rooted in ideas and stories, shifting from the poetic to the political, while examining the hidden workings of gardens, the sensuous rhythms of landscapes, and the organic abstractions of surfaces.

Beyond the studio, Tricia writes, lectures, and curates, contributing to a broader artistic dialogue. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from University College of the Cariboo (now Thompson Rivers University) in 2002, and her Master of Fine Arts from the Transart Institute for Creative Research in 2009. She has participated in numerous national and international residencies, with works held in collections across North America, Europe, Mexico, and South Africa.

She is currently artist-in-residence at Casa Décor, Kamloops, BC.
WEBSITE

Cathy Simone

Medium: Photography
Cathy Simone’s photography celebrates the essence of the horse, capturing their spirit, character, and movement with striking balance and beauty. Through the interplay of light and shadow, she explores form, motion, and emotion, creating images that engage viewers and evoke deep connection.

With a foundation in traditional film, chemistry, and darkroom processes, Cathy developed a discipline of patience, craftsmanship, and technical precision. These early practices continue to inform her approach to photography today, where her work blends technical mastery with artistic sensitivity.

Since 2006, Cathy has shared her expertise as an instructor and mentor at the Alberta University of the Arts, inspiring new generations of photographers. Currently based in Diamond Valley, Alberta, she continues to refine her poetic narratives that honour both the art of photography and the unbridled equine spirit. Her work stands as a tribute to freedom, beauty, and the enduring bond between humans and horses.
WEBSITE
 

Dimitri Sirenko

Medium: Painting
Born in Ukraine, Dimitri Sirenko has been immersed in visual art since childhood, beginning with sketches inspired by cartoons and video games. After immigrating to Canada in 1999, he explored new mediums, from acrylic painting to 3D design, ultimately earning a Media Arts degree in 3D Animation from Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Dimitri went on to work for over a decade in the video game industry, contributing to projects ranging from indie titles to major franchises like Halo. Rising from concept artist to art director, he gained recognition for his leadership and creativity but ultimately sought a return to pure artistic expression.

In rediscovering traditional painting, Dimitri began competing in live art events, winning numerous titles including the 2018 Art Battle National Championship. Today, he is dedicated to fine art, creating bold, expressive works that merge imagination, storytelling, and a passion for authentic creativity.
WEBSITE

Steve Speer

Medium: Photography
Steve Speer has been photographing urban and rural landscapes since the early 1970s. A respected photographer and teacher, his work is featured in corporate and private collections across Canada and internationally. He studied photography at the Alberta University of the Arts in the 1980s and later returned as a sessional instructor in 2007.

Steve has published two books: Building on the Bow – Landmarks of Calgary Commercial Real Estate and CHINA – Guangdong Province Portfolio. His photography has been profiled in numerous publications, including Freisens Printing’s prestigious 2015 Engagement Calendar.

Originally drawn to large-format film for its immersive, deliberate process, Steve now works digitally but maintains the same thoughtful approach. His limited-edition prints are produced to archival standards and custom framed to highlight each image. For Steve, photography is ultimately about vision—transforming moments of observation into carefully crafted works of art.
WEBSITE
 

Vance Theoret

Medium: Stonework
Vance Theoret approaches carving through “direct carving,” a method where the shapes within a stone reveal themselves and guide the artist’s hand. Rather than relying on sketches or models, he connects intuitively with the material, allowing its natural form to inspire the finished work.

Working primarily in soapstone and alabaster sourced from around the world, Vance views each piece as a fragment of Earth’s deep history—stone that has been formed and reformed over millions of years. He believes stone carries a memory within its structure, a silent story that he interprets through carving.

For Vance, the process is a dialogue: when the stone “talks,” he listens, shaping it into forms that speak to others. Each sculpture is not only a work of art but also the next step in the stone’s evolution, inviting viewers to connect with its timeless energy and enduring presence.
WEBSITE

Peter Thompson

Medium: Painter
Born in London just before World War II, Peter Thompson’s earliest drawings reflected the sights and tragedies of the blitz. Though he once considered the priesthood, his life eventually led him to travel extensively in Africa as a Catholic lay evangelist, where he recorded his journeys in sketchbooks.

After completing national service with the RAF, Peter began a career in retail display at Selfridges, later emigrating with his wife Madeleine and their three children to Calgary in 1967. There, he continued his work in design while nurturing his lifelong passion for art.

In the 1980s, Peter returned to painting, studying watercolour, colour, and figure drawing at the Alberta College of Art. Encouraged by instructors, he began exhibiting his work in Calgary galleries and at western art shows and auctions. Today, Peter continues to paint in watercolour, capturing his travels and the beauty of the world around him.
WEBSITE

Dennis J. Weber

Medium: Painter
Born in Prince Albert, SK, and raised in Calgary, Dennis J. Weber has lived across Western Canada and now resides in Didsbury, AB. A first cousin to Louis Riel, five generations removed, Dennis reflects on Riel’s words: “When they awaken, it will be the artists who give them back their spirit.” About a century later, he began his own journey to becoming a full-time artist.

Working in oils, pastels, pencil, charcoal, and coloured pencil—often in combination—Dennis is known for his mastery of glazing techniques. He is accredited by the Federation of Canadian Artists and holds a fellowship with the Canadian Institute of Portrait Artists.

Throughout his career, Dennis has shared his expertise through demonstrations, workshops, and mentorship, including with Métis and Indigenous youth. Now regarded as one of Canada’s foremost Métis artists, he continues to create and speak on how his heritage profoundly shapes his art.
WEBSITE

Vaughn Warren

Medium: Carver
Vaughn Warren is a Canadian multi-media artist and cultural worker of French/British descent. Beginning his career with the Mad Artists Mural Company in Vancouver in 1990, he painted large-scale murals and worked as a scenic painter and prop maker on films such as Jumanji, Hard Core Logo, and 2012. During this time, he also began carving fossilized mammoth ivory jewelry.

After returning to Kamloops, Vaughn expanded his practice to include wood carving, illustration, and graphic design. Notable projects include designing the City of Kamloops’ Tournament Capital logo (2001), carving the 20-foot Riverpole (2002), and contributing to the 2005 Venice Biennale as part of Rebecca Belmore’s team. He later served as Exhibition Designer at the Kamloops Art Gallery, working with leading contemporary Canadian artists.

Vaughn continues to create monumental wood sculptures, murals, and carvings, mentor youth through residencies, and contribute to community cultural projects. In 2016, he received the Kamloops Mayor’s Award for the Arts (Design).
WEBSITE