For the first time, the Station House Gallery in Williams Lake is collaborating with an emerging artist whose work is now on display in the gallery’s upper showroom.
The collection of paintings called Maarsiimaan, or Grateful, is inspired by B.C.’s natural beauty and will be featured in the gallery throughout the month of June.
The Quesnel-based artist Natasha Lepine is only just beginning to show her work in galleries across the province, but she certainly isn’t new to art.
“I have always painted, but the art journey hasn’t always been landscapes or oil,” Lepine said in an interview with the Tribune. She began exploring oil painting about two years ago with her mentor Peter Corbett. Growing up, Lepine said she was always an ‘anime’ kid, drawing lots of comics and doodles.
Nowadays, Lepine enjoys going on road trips and, when inspiration strikes, she captures what she sees onto a canvas. Her appreciation for the beauty of B.C.'s varied landscape is communicated through her work.
“I love to take my truck on forest service roads, and I’ll take my easel with me, my supplies and once something captures my eye I’ll just pull over, start painting,” Lepine said as she spoke at the show’s opening on Thursday, June 5. “I just wanted to show appreciation for the underappreciated gems of B.C. especially, in our region of the Cariboo.”
Lepine said the collection is also a reflection of and appreciation for her Métis heritage.
“I believe that my deep appreciation for nature does stem and root a lot in my Métis heritage,” she said. Lepine talked about how she enjoys foraging, and whenever she’s out on hikes, she tends to touch all the plants around her and say hello to the birds.
"I think that that’s my ancestors’ way of shining through.”
The entire collection took about a year to make, and Lepine said she’s very happy to be able to display her work in the gallery which she visited last year and was absolutely charmed by.
Lepine’s work is being showcased at the same time as the Cariboo Art Society members show their collection ‘What If’ in the gallery’s lower showroom. Both shows, sponsored by the late Mary Skipp and Gibraltar: Taseko Mines, will be on display until July 6.
“I just want to give a shoutout to all the art kids in high school and middle school,” said Lepine as a final thought while speaking to the Tribune. "Your art journey, there’s so many ebbs and flows, bumps along the way, but you’ll find something that clicks and if it gives you joy cling onto it.”
She said art is not about becoming Picasso or Monet, but rather is about enjoyment.
“I think anyone’s an artist if they create something and it brings out something that nothing else can in them.”
