Carolyne Stayton

Carolyne Stayton

Artist statement:

Each day the tides on Vancouver Island bring in an assortment of wood, shells, glass, vegetation, and surprises. To me, it stimulates both a trove of possible stories and a stream of bubbling questions. Where did this come from? What was it before it landed here? Was it part of a ship, or a shipment? Something from someone's garden, or part of a tree that was felled? When I'm considering a previously manufactured item, I contemplate its journey and how might it have landed on this shore for me to now discover. I find myself studying the grain in the wood, the texture and shape. Often, in my minds' eye there emerges and image, a scene.

I want to pull my imagined story or image through my work while illuminating the gran and shape, the history behind the piece. I add color, create depth, turn seaweed into a tree or a piece of panel into an ocean sunset. I bring a new story into being that connects it to its provenance. Sometime I do this with whimsy, sometimes with promise. Hopefully, with something for others to enjoy.

All my pieces are created from items found on these shores. It is a celebration of our coast, the beauty and the bounty of what arrives every day to our doorstep. Hopefully it delights and brings smiles to on lookers and gets some creative juices flowing. When you take a piece home with you, you are taking the seaside of Vancouver Island with you.

Carolyne Stayton has studied watercolor and acrylic landscape painting. With these wood pieces she is exploring how to combine various techniques to create this new story.