Oystercatchers #127

A SLUT FOR OYSTERCATCHERS

Anne Hansen has a crush on oystercatchers, which is why she’s painting them. She’s not slapping paint on the birds themselves, but portraying their likeness on canvas.

These seashore clowns are simultaneously slender, chunky, clumsy and elegant -- lending themselves perfectly to Anne’s cheery, bold style.

“One day I was sitting on the beach at Dallas Road at sunset. Between the sun and me was an oystercatcher, flopping around a hunk of brilliantly back-lit green seaweed in its big, silly red bill.”

This singular experience launched Anne onto an unstoppable creative trajectory. Within a few months, she had spilled forth a cascade of over 70 canvases of oystercatchers, with the Olympic mountains as backdrop. Maybe this isn't surprising, given that she was brought up by birdwatching parents who were environmentalists way before both became fashionable.

"As a naturalist, I am concerned about the fate of our wild coast. The oystercatcher thrives along relatively undisturbed shoreline from Alaska to California. The habitat of countless seashore creatures is threatened by rampant clear-cutting, luxury tourist development, fish farming, and the spectre of oil tankers plying the jagged, shipwrecked Vancouver Island coast," says Anne.

Anne takes pride in the whimsy and freedom that comes with being a self-taught artist. She is a life model, having worked for art classes in Guelph, Ontario, shortly before moving to BC. For 25 years, she was an administrative assistant in Drama and other departments at the University of Toronto. This work suited her perfectly, but a full-time job left little time for art. Anne is also a knitter and urban cyclist.

EXHIBITIONS
(Please see current list, as separate "page" on this blog.  -- A.H. (July 9, 2012)

-- LOOK Victoria Art Show, Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC (February 2011)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Esquimalt Branch (February-March 2011)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (January-June 2011)
-- Tulista Centre, Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula, Sidney, BC (November 2010)
-- Art Sea Festival, Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, Sidney, BC (October 2010)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (September 2010)
-- 1st International Seabird Conference, Birds At Sea group show, Victoria, BC (September 2010)
-- James Bay Art Walk (September 2010)
-- Cycles group art show, Office of Denise Savoie, MP for Victoria (summer 2010)
-- Coast Collective, Colwood, BC, Lighthouse Living group show (July 2010)
-- My Body of Oystercatchers, solo art gallery debut, Victoria, BC (June & July 2010)
-- Oak Bay Marina (April 2010)
-- James Bay Coffee and Books (April 2010)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (February 2010)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Esquimalt Branch (January 2010)
- Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria, Victoria International Airport lounge (November 2009 - April 2010)
- Artist's Corner, Greater Victoria Public Library, Main Branch (Sept 2009)
- James Bay Art Walk (Sept 5 & 6 2009)
- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (mid-Aug to mid-Sept 2009)
- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (April - July 2009)
- Sooke Region Museum, Upstairs Gallery (June-July 2009)
- Sooke Harbour House Gallery (from March 2009)
- James Bay Coffee and Books, Victoria BC (March 2009)
- Office of Denise Savoie, MP for Victoria (February-May 2009)
- LOOK Victoria Art Show (February 2009)
- Moka House, Shoal Point, Victoria, BC (September 2009)
- James Bay Coffee and Books, Victoria BC (Mar/Apr 2008)
- First Unitarian Church of Victoria (May-July 2008)
- LOOK Victoria Art Show (February 2008)
- OISIE, and Partisan Gallery, (Toronto, mid 1980s)



photo: Anne Hansen

"Do we want to be remembered as the generation that saved the banks but let the biosphere collapse?" -- George Monbiot