At the Mount Currie Coffee Co. in Pemberton you can get your caffeine fix with a side of art. Adorning the walls is the work of local artists, and as of June 2017 the flamboyant paintings of Valerie Butters.
“I am an aggressive painter; I paint with long brushes with bamboo taped to them. I know how to paint. I know what a brush does, but when you extend your arm a few feet, you give up control over the process. However, I do believe that, in surrendering to the control, I have become a truth in my process. I have given my work an abstracted realism.” – Valerie.
Originally from the East Coast, she attended the Ottawa School of Art in 2001 and, in 2005, graduated from a three-year Comprehensive Arts Program at the Saidye Bronfman Centre. She studied under many prominent contemporary artists such as: Jennifer Hornyak, Marilyn Rubenstein, Seymour Segel, Shirley Kats, Philip Iverson, Sophie Jodoin, and Jacques Clement.
She is fascinated by the subconscious, influenced by both surrealism and experssionism, and inspired by the revolutionary abstract artist, Paul-Émile Borduas.
Her evolution and exuberant exploration of colour and composition make her still-lifes and landscapes flamboyant and exciting. Art critic Henry Lehmann of the Montréal Gazette (11 September 2004) described her work as “…interestingly gaudy, exuberantly messy…”
You can find more of Valerie’s work at the Adele Campbell Gallery inside the Westin Resort and Spa Hotel in Whistler.
The Mount Currie Coffee Co. is open 6:30am – 6pm everyday.
mountcurriecoffee.com * (604) 894-3388 * 7331 Arbutus St #2, Pemberton, BC V0N 2L0
