BY ELIZABETH NOLAN
ARTCRAFT MANAGER
Salt Spring Arts will be kicking off its 2025 Artcraft season on June 6 with a burst of vibrant colour on the Mahon Hall stage, when Mayne Island artists Donna Dubock and Elisabeth Jahren unveil their Showcase exhibition All Paintings Great and Small.
Presented by the community arts council every summer since 1968, the Artcraft show and sale features up to 100 local artists and makers in the retail gallery based in the historic hall, along with four special exhibitions presented on the hall’s stage. The opening Showcase for this year is in essence a dialogue — between two artists, between spontaneity and intention, and between colour and form.
“Some pieces in this exhibit are collaborative, while others are independently painted, yet they all share a common language: a deep connection to the natural world and an intuitive creative process,” Dubock and Jahren explain in their statement. “Bold, satu-rated colour is at the heart of our practice. Each painting begins with play — random marks and abstracted hues that emerge freely. From there, we listen. The painting itself becomes our guide, revealing forms, energy and movement as we respond to its evolving story.”
Dubock is originally from the U.K. and studied at the Art Institute in Bournemouth before moving into a career in health and so-cial care. She moved to B.C. after purchasing a sailboat on Granville Island and was then able to “feed her painting appetite,” as she puts it.
Jahren was born in Norway but raised on the west coast of B.C. for most of her life. She lives and practices as a veterinarian on Mayne. Music and art have always been a big part of her life from a very early age, but it is only in the last few years she has had the opportunity to more deeply explore both her passions.
The two women became friends living on Mayne and over the past decade or so have often explored painting together, while al-so sharing any new artists, workshops and techniques they’d discovered.
“I think we like to work together, painting and seeing what happens, and it just seemed like it was the natural progression to ac-tually have a go at doing an exhibition together,” Dubock said, noting they have had previous joint shows at the ArtSea Gallery in Sidney. Dubock has also participated in Artcraft since winter 2023; gallery visitors have admired her sweetly rendered wild birds, backyard chickens and lush landscapes dominated by flowers.
Whether creating together or apart, the two women say their paintings reflect “a shared love for discovery, an embrace of the unexpected and an invitation for the viewer to find their own meaning within the layers of colour and form.” While Jahren prefers to stay abstract and Dubock often depicts specific scenes, viewers can perceive the natural world’s influence on each artist. Both feel their way into a piece through the process instead of pursuing an intended outcome. And each painter favours boldness, high contrast and rich colour families such as red, turquoise and gold.
“The thing is we both start our paintings the same way. We certainly don’t finish them the same way, but we start our paint-ings just with playing with colour and collage and mark making, and it’s quite intuitive,” Jahren said, adding when she does have ideas before starting, the results are never what she had planned. “But that’s the fun of it: it’s like a journey. You don’t really know where you’re going to end up. It’s an adventure. And it’s fun.”
Members of the public are invited to an opening celebration taking place from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, June 6 and an artists’ talk with Dubock and Jahren on Saturday, June 7 at 1 p.m. Artcraft is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from June 6 through Sept. 21. The Showcase exhibition is on until June 30.