St. George's Studio in Wells is owned by the gregarious and amazing Peter Corbett. The gallery, in the town's former church, is filled to the brim with hundreds of Corbett's plein air paintings of scenery around Canada.
Earlier this year, Corbett began to have vision troubles. Things like blurry vision began affecting him. Recently, his ability to do routine functions was affected by the vision loss. Daily activities like driving and sending e-mails became difficult for him. Doctors found his cognitive function was being affected as well and Corbett went with friends to the Okanagan to see more specialists and find out what is happening.
He is considered legally blind and unable to do business on his computer or live independently at the moment. To support Corbett, people have begun rallying to ensure he can sustain his income while dealing with his medical issues.
One of the people spearheading the effort to support Corbett is Jillian Merrick who manages the Wells Hotel.
"It's everything from splitting and stocking firewood, changing a flat tire in his vehicle to fully running the gallery," she explained. One of the ways people can support Corbett is by purchasing his paintings, which are available through his online store found at petercorbettpainter.com.
"About three years ago I helped Peter build his online store so that he could sell works through his online store. So now we're relying on that as the primary storefront moving forward," she said. There will be some days throughout the summer where Corbett's studio will be open with volunteers running it, Merrick said, noting people should keep an eye on the Peter Corbett - St. George Studio Facebook page to see when those days come up.
Both Island Mountain Arts in Wells and Barkerville Brewing in Quesnel are showing Corbett's works, allowing people to purchase them in person as well.
"Every piece that he paints, it's not reproduced in any way. It's the only one that exists, and he has hundreds if not thousands of them because he pretty much gets out to paint every day," Merrick said. "He's been an instructor and mentor for many developing painters who come and take his classes, other artists in the community when they're developing their careers as professionals. In his past life, he's been galleried all over Canada by major professional galleries but he's chosen to go the independent route because he finds a lot more satisfaction in selling his own work and talking directly to the people that are buying his art and explaining his story."
Corbett's painting process starts with a small painting while outdoors. He then uses it as a reference piece for the larger pieces he creates in studio. As both a plein air painter and a biologist, Corbett has a passion for sharing nature's beauty.
"Peter has a very generous spirit, he often jokes that he is also a little kid in a grown man's body, he's just full of joy," Merrick said. "He's not one to ever ask for help, to see the community rallying to support him has really lifted his spirits."
