LEFT: FIGHT OR FLIGHT, BY ANGELA MORGAN, FROM ADELE CAMPBELL GALLERY. ABOVE: NIGHT RIPPING, BY PETER WYSE, FROM ADELE CAMPBELL GALLERY.
PETER WYSE MIGHT LIVE DOWN the Sea to Sky Highway in Clayburn,
B.C., but his passion for skiing prompts the same emotions—and artistic inspiration. “I’m 48 now and when I ski, I feel like a kid,” he says. “It’s the most amazing feeling ever. You’re so present.” His paintings—which you’ll find in Whistler at the Adele Campbell Gallery—exude that playfulness and movement, particularly the images that feature ski scenes. They primarily depict colourful characters in the midst of careening downhill with arms jubilantly raised, mid-flip over a mountain, or peacefully gliding across snow. “What I love about my ski paintings personally is they’re active,” Wyse says. “My hockey paintings are like a hockey card almost, but ski paintings, they’re more involved.” In fact, Wyse has gleaned plenty of inspiration over the last 12 years from skiing with his now-15-year-old son. “My son is really interested in skiing,” he says. “He was three when he started ski lessons. I switched from snowboarding to skiing at the time and fell in love with it…There’s that amazing energy and that makes it easy to translate and find the story.” SIMILARLY, FERNIE, BC-BASED ARTIST Angela Morgan—who is also represented in Whistler by the Adele Campbell Gallery—turns to her kids, the slopes and the winter season for inspiration. Where Wyse employs the use of precise lines and a few solid colours, Morgan jam-packs her paintings with many colours, patterns and a looser vibe. “My art is fun, playful and it’s a lot of movement (having watched) all those kids for so many years,” Morgan says, referring to her time on the ski hill. While Fernie might be a smaller ski town almost 1,000 kilometres southeast of Whistler, Morgan still taps into the joie de vivre that comes from living where other people vacation—a common thread between both locations. 22
WHISTLER MAGAZINE WINTER/SPRING 2019