Member of the Month – Kamloops Arts Council
For the member of the month – October, we interviewed Angela McIntosh, a Painter of Impressionistic Realism. She owns and operates Chasing Art Studio & Gallery at 637 Shuswap Ave., Chase, B.C.
Full Name: Angela McIntosh
Medium: Painting in Oils and Acrylics
How long have you been doing your art:
I have been painting for 42 years since 1983.
What got you originally interested in the art you do;
Interestingly I was initially exposed to painting impressionistic realism in oils because I studied with professors at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing who were painters trained in working from life in the studio and en plein air by their teachers who had studied at the Ecole des Beax Arts in Paris in the first half of the 1900’s and brought their teaching methods back with them to their art schools in China. Then they became frozen as if in a time capsule by the communist government in 1949 and amazingly were still training students in that method when I studied with professors there in 1987. I was fortunate that they continued to teach this way alongside their traditional Chinese brush painting and print making arts.
What is something you have learned about yourself through your art:
I have learned that I am passionate about preserving and rehabilitating the natural environment and that I can use my art to hopefully motivate others.
What do you most enjoy about art:
I love that my art helps me value and improve my connection between nature and communities while I paint natural and man-made beauty.
What is your favorite joke/quote:
My favourite quote is that “Our forests are the source of life on the planet”.
What is something most people don’t know about you:
Most people don’t know that strangely it seems I had to go to medical school for 7 years to end up becoming a painter because it was there that during a rural doctor elective in an interior hospital I spent 3 days with the patients in the psychiatric ward who had an art therapist and there was not much for me to do at the time so she told me to join in and paint. She asked if I had thought of taking up painting because I enjoyed it so much and NOT that I showed any particular talent. She suggested I purchase a How To Book on painting and some materials. I did and that changed the course of my life. I left my studies 4 months later to pursue painting. Despite my faculty advisors mockingly telling me that surely I would be back to my medical training but I never returned and fully embraced my new passion.
Why are you a member of the Kamloops Arts Council:
I am a member of KAC as I am now at my Chasing Art Studio at Gallery at 637 Shuswap Ave in Chase after closing my studio of 18 years in the north at Stewart BC. I am inviting regional people to visit my art studio and gallery and to contact me if interested in future workshops.
What are you looking forward to the most in this upcoming year (A special show or project you’re working on):
Creating as much art as possible and trying to be more involved in my community through it.
Are you on social media or have a website you would like us to include/link?
www.Instagram.com/landscape.artist or google Chasing Art Studio and Gallery or Angie McIntosh Painter.