INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / SEPTEMBER 4, 1990

 

 

Half-Century of local artist’s
work at College exhibition

er paintings are
astonishing. They make
you want to touch them,

to possess whatever person or
thing she has captured on canvas.

But you’ve probably never
seen a painting by Alyce Stephen-
son. You’ve probably never heard
of her, and she seems to like it that
way. When asked to explain what
moves her to produce such art, she
has no profound, esoteric answer.

“I just fiddle around with it,”
Stephenson shrugs, uncomfortab-
ly. The Port Coquitlam artist can
daub paint onto canvas to reveal
the soul of an old prospector’s
cabin, but she can’t conceive that
anyone would want to know how
she does it. “If you want to do it,
you can,” she says.

Stephenson has been painting
for fifty years. In fact, an exhibi-
tion of her works called Fifty Years

 

 

 

 

In Retrospect goes on display at
Douglas College in New
Westminster later this month.
Caroline Sadler of the Douglas
College Arts Advisory Committee,
which is sponsoring the exhibi-
tion, says there were many paint-
ings to choose from. “There is such

 

a variety in her work. We thought
it would be good to look at the
scope of an artist’s life, somebody
who has been so creative and
prolific.”

Words like ‘creative’ and
‘prolific’ apply to Stephenson, but
they are not words she would use
to describe herself. It is not that
she is quiet; far from it. She has
lots to say about government,
education, and the environment,
and she is especially passionate
about a little town called Quesnel
Forks in the Cariboo region of
British Columbia.

It is a place that boomed
during the 1860’s gold rush, but
it’s a ghost town now, and
Stephenson travels there often to
work, finding inspiration in the
crumbling, empty buildings and
the sense of history. “It’s a lovely
place,” she says. “I find lots of
things to paint there. These places
have many tales to tell.”

She would like to see it
preserved, and for years she’s lob-
bied the provincial government to
save the areas as parks, but there
has been opposition from the local
folk who are more interested in
economic development than
preservation. “I must be the most
unpopular person in the area,”
says Stephenson.

Capturing the lonely beauty of
these areas in her art is an attempt
to alert people to what she feels is
the loss of a national treasure.

Stephenson has done a lot of
different things in her life, but
she’s vague about dates and
details. She went to UBC, she
taught, she worked as a graphic
artist and as a nurse, she raised a
family, but art has been a constant
pursuit that began when she was a
little girl.

“1 would sit on my grand-

 

 

 

 

 

 

father’s knee and draw cartoons.
When I went to school I was the
only person who could draw,” she
says. “I didn’t decide to go into it.
I just always did it.”

i R runs
from Thursday, September 13 to
Friday, October 26 in the Douglas
College Gallery in the Theatre
Foyer. It is free and open to the
public. m

 

 

 

 

—3