Image Credit: TeePublic
May 28, 2020 - 8:00 AM
Stephanie Perry has always drawn inspiration for her art from the landscape.
Perry loves the outdoors, focusing her art on the Okanagan for the last five years. From snails to quails, her art features a variety of creatures found in the valley.
With the COVID-19 pandemic and sales dropping off in March, she decided to try something different and began selling masks with her artwork printed on the fabric.
Normally, you can see her paintings in person at the Matheson & Grove Fine Art Gallery in Penticton, but with COVID-19, the gallery has closed so Perry had to be creative to get an income, she said.
“I can make money doing this too and people in town can order one and have a quail on their face,” she laughed. “A lot of people around here support local artists and people that they know so it’s nice.”
Her sales have increased since March, as people have started ordering paintings and prints online.
“Everything started going well. Shipping times are delayed but (customers have) adapted to that,” she said.
The Internet has saved artists with recent art gallery closures due to the pandemic, she said. She sells clothes, masks, prints and home goods through TeePublic and Etsy online stores. The masks have been available for the last month, she said, and sales have been going well.
She’d like to eventually find local print shops to print the art and do it locally, she said.
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As a full-time artist, when she’s not painting she’s taking care of her young daughters. She’s been a painter her whole life, drawing inspiration from her father who is also an artist, she said.
“I’m very interested in Canadian, specifically Canadian endangered wildlife, which is why I paint the Canadian caribou,” she said. “I honestly just love painting, most of the time I’m open to painting whatever but I don’t like painting people very much.”
Living close to the woods, you can often see her sketching birds and other creatures in the backyard.
“I’m a wildlife enthusiast. I’m a bird watcher. I started mostly with birds,” she said.
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Her medium is mostly painting, as she finds the smearing of the paint to be cathartic.
“It’s like an extension of one’s arm… it’s very zen,” she said.
The masks are currently being sold through her Tee Public account online.
Penticton artist Stephanie Perry draws inspiration from the landscapes around her.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Stephanie Perry
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