About Me

Biography

Elaine L. Hughes holds a Visual Arts Certificate from the University of Alberta, Faculty of Extension, having graduated with distinction in 2018. She now lives in Victoria, BC, where she is an Exhibiting Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, exhibiting in both local shows and their gallery on Granville Island, Vancouver, BC. She was an Associate Member of the Coast Collective, where she exhibited regularly and taught workshops, until their closure due to Covid-19, then spent three years as an exhibiting Member of the Metchosin Artpod Collective from 2020 through 2022.

Hughes works primarily in watercolour, and has participated in many group exhibitions in both Edmonton, AB, and the Victoria area, including both the Sooke Fine Arts Show and the Sidney Fine Art Show. Her paintings are post-impressionistic in style, and are characterized by strong values, intense colours, and variety. Her art is dedicated to showing the forms, moods and beauty of the natural world.

Artist Statement

My journey as an artist began in childhood, with a profound love of both crayons and nature. In my world back then, all that was beautiful was of Nature, and in my grandfather’s studio I first learned to draw using brittle sticks of vine charcoal.

All that is beautiful in my world is still of Nature, and I use my art to try to express the glory and the spirit of life on this planet, our home. I refer to my landscapes as post-Anthropocene, as I focus on the beauty that will somehow outlast our current destructive era. The pressures of human habitation on our world are now immense and dispiriting, but we resonate with a distant memory of a different and happier world, and can envision its blessed return.

“Art is a path on which we honour our world.” - Robert Genn

Solo Exhibitions

2019   Revisions: A Show about Moments in Time, Westridge Gallery, Coast Collective, Sept 11-22, 2019

 
2018    Nanaimo Fine Art Show, FCA Nanaimo Chapter, Nanaimo BC (juried)
 
2018    Scenes From Western Canada, Federation of Canadian Artists, Vancouver BC (juried)
 
2018    Sooke Fine Arts Show, Sooke BC (juried)
 
2018    Moss Street Paint-in, Victoria BC (juried)
 
2018    Aquarelle et Pastel, Federation of Canadian Artists, Vancouver BC (juried)
 
2018    FCA Victoria Chapter, Spring Show, Victoria BC (juried)
 
2018    Coast Collective Shows: Beginnings, Transformations, Bloom 10, Folklore, Galloping Goose & Revealed, Victoria BC (juried)
 
2017    FCA Victoria Chapter, Fall Show, Victoria BC (juried)
 
2017    Sidney Fine Art Show, Sidney BC (juried)
 
2017    Moss Street Paint-in, Victoria BC (juried)
 
2017    FCA Victoria Chapter, Spring Show,  Victoria BC (juried)
 
2017    Coast Collective shows: Red, Associates Showcase, Small Works, Canada 150 & Into the Night, Victoria BC (juried)

2016     and earlier, participant in numerous student and art club shows, including:

2016     Small Treasures, Coast Collective, Victoria BC (juried)

2015     30th Anniversary Spring Show, Art Society of Strathcona County, Sherwook Park AB (juried)

2010     No Story Too Small To Trade, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina SK

2009     Two Dozen, Society of Western Canadian Artists/Scotia Place Edmonton AB (juried)

2003     Open Arts Competition, Allied Arts Council, Spruce Grove AB

2003     Recent Works, Woodbend Gallery and Frame Studio, Devon AB (invitational)

Awards