Mezzanine Gallery and Reception Walls
Susan Victoria Phillips
About the Artwork / Artist:
Bold Colour Paintings are a celebration of the emotive power of pigment. This collection explores the resonance of colour—the way it can hold memory, energy, and emotion long after the first encounter. With sweeping gestures and saturated palettes, each painting invites the viewer into a sensory dialogue. These are not passive visuals, but active expressions that pulse with inner rhythms and the world’s outer beauty.
Susan Victoria Phillips is a visual artist based in Victoria, British Columbia. Born in London, England, Susan's creative roots trace back to her childhood, when she was inspired by watching her mother design gowns for Queen Elizabeth’s court. Since relocating to Vancouver Island in 2013, Susan has devoted herself fully to painting. Deeply inspired by the Island’s flowing waters, ancient forests, and luminous coastal light, her work is known for its bold use of colour and expressive movement.
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Upper Gallery Wall
Jenny Clark
About the Artwork / Artist:
Art on Fire is a collection of paintings and photos that I’ve created over the last 10 years. But they really began in 2003 with the Rocky River fire in Jasper National Park where I was a park interpreter for many years. The valley of the Rocky River burned for weeks that summer. I went out alone at night to watch it. What followed was an amazing transformation. Fireweed bloomed, elk thrived and wolves dined. The paintings, long curing in the back of my mind, started coming down the brush unbidden in 2017 when I returned to Victoria and obtained a studio in Rock Bay Square on Bridge St. Since then, I have visited and photographed recovering burned landscapes in BC every summer following a trail of climate change and regeneration. The photos, intended as a record only, began to form a tender relationship of their own with the recovering land and my travels within it and so are included.
I was born and raised in Victoria, obtained a BSc in biology from UVic in 1978 and spent my working life in Alberta as an environmental educator for Parks Canada, Alberta Wildlife Service and NWT Wildlife Service. In 1991, I graduated from Alberta College of Art in painting. In 1992, I gave birth to my son and spent the next 20 years focused on motherhood, returning to Victoria in 2007 to bring my son to high school.
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Window Gallery
Melanie Thompson
About the Artwork / Artist:
From the depths comes new marine forms shaped from discarded mass-produced objects, specifically water bottles. A new vertebral structure. The work re-interprets cast offs and transforms them into compelling objects of decoration mimicking the natural world. The assembled structures draw attention to the materials and asks the viewer to redefine their perceptions of them. In re making the discarded, versatility and value is added.
Melanie Thompson lives and works on Salt Spring Island and in a very small cottage at the Finn Slough on the Fraser River. She has practiced basketry for many years using traditional and non-traditional materials. I am a multidisciplinary visual artist. My work is materials driven and that inspires my making. My approach is experimental. I work with natural and found materials. I manipulate the material to see what it is capable of. Everything is grist for the mill. I often obtain materials with no creation in mind, the process of working with the material in an exploratory way informs my decisions of what to make, what techniques to use, what form they will take.
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Accessibility: Accessible washrooms, Wheelchair access on main and second floor, and disabled parking stalls. Limited access to mezzanine and upper gallery spaces
For inquiries related to exhibitions, please contact Shantael Sleight at shantael.sleight@saanich.ca or call 778-584-3756.