Benefit for Public Art, June 17, 2011

ON JUNE 17th, we hosted members of our community at a FUNDRAISER FOR PUBLIC ART in Roberts Creek. The artist, Gordon Halloran, created a special preview installation of the floating paintings as part of the evening. We'd love to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank those who contributed to this event.

















Our SPONSORS, Judith Reeve, Landscape Architect, The Coast Reporter & IGA Gibsons; VOLUNTEERS Tracy, Jaz Halloran, Nina Haedrich, Shelley Harrison-Rae, Joanne Bennison, Lis Dixon, Donna Schmirler, Erik Olson, Jean Marc Boyd; PROFESSIONALS Dave Halstead and Gibsons Party Rentals, as well as all those who attended, who brought their friends and participated in the evening.






It was wonderful fun; five permanent LOTUS paintings were sold and we raised almost 25% of the expenses of LOTUS IN MOTION at VanDusen Botanical Garden, July - September 2011.



This Sunday, June 26th 2 - 5 PM OPEN HOUSE come out and see the artwork in the garden. Call for location 886-3634

Public art by Gordon Halloran

VanDusen Botanical Garden to host Lotus in Motion



Multi-coloured lotus leaves to float on two lakes, one pond in July

JUNE 6, 2011, Vancouver - Artist Gordon Halloran, who most recently completed a wall of ice paintings called ICE GATE for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, will bring another brilliantly coloured outdoor public art installation to the city of Vancouver in July, 2011 called Lotus In Motion, the Watercolour Project.

VanDusen Botanical Garden is the setting for the two-lake-one-pond installation, made up of multiple paintings in the shape of the lily pad, bold in colour and varied in size. Visitors will see the artwork as they walk the paths, touring the gardens. Livingston Lake, Heather Pond, and Heron Lake will contain the paintings which will float on the water. A smaller installation will also be featured in the pool of the Bentall Garden just inside the Garden Entrance. The installation opens to the public July 29th.

Gordon Halloran’s Lotus In Motion uses site, scale and colour to attract viewers. Like bees to bright flowers, onlookers are seduced by vibrancy, lured out of individual pursuits into collective play.



Working along the trajectory of his unique, sculptural ice paintings, (Paintings Below Zero), Halloran employs water as part of the artwork’s physicality. Floating lily pads in a variety of sizes, Lotus In Motion is an installation of shape and hue that finds inspiration in Claude Monet’s Impressionist waterlilies, calving Arctic icebergs, and overlapping organic textures of landscape flora. Halloran’s lotus paintings bud from the natural world – each composition, a layering of pattern and hue resplendent with vigour.

When the new $20 million Visitor Centre opens at VanDusen in September 2011, Lotus In Motion will provide a backdrop of magnificent colour to the building in the garden setting.



In addition, the artist is creating a new series of Lotus In Motion paintings for a parallel exhibit. While the water installation uses a combination of materials designed to stay afloat and intact in the water as well as to be seen from a distance, the permanent wall paintings are made of slightly different multi-layered materials, rich in texture, lacework, and brilliant colour.

A special press preview on Thursday, July 28th is planned at VanDusen Botanical Garden, with the artist in attendance. For press information on this opening, contact Caitlin Hicks (604)886-3634. Lotus in Motion, the Watercolour Project runs until September 30.

Dragonfly on a lotus leaf

At the BENEFIT FOR PUBLIC ART held at the artist's studio and garden this past weekend, Gord read from a book which has resonated with him called "Smile of the Buddha".



In this book are his favorite artists: Monet, van Gogh, Gauguin, Kandinsky, Brancusi, O'Keefe, Klein, Jasper Johns, Cage. All of them, it turns out, are linked by observation of the present moment.



Claude Monet, painter of stillness and reflection, was one of the first artists to suggest a meditative state of mind with his artwork. With his water garden in Giverny, he joined his meditation on impermanence with the idea of regeneration and renewal; renewal that can be observed in the garden, with the seasons, the birds, insects and plants.



On Thursday, Gord installed the floating paintings in the garden pond, surrounded by yellow and purple iris, red azalea, green and lime lady's mantle, fish, birds, dragonflies. Erik Olson took photos, while volunteers shopped, worked in the kitchen, prepared tapas, designed the programme, cleaned and sorted furniture. Getting ready.



The sun made shadows in the fresh air.



Tomorrow: Friday night by the garden pond. People, paintings.

Making art