The Caetani Cultural Centre welcomes the public for the next First Friday Art Trail on Friday, June 5 from 2 to 6 pm.
In the Jüül Studio will be our June artist-in-residence Marlene Lowden, visiting us from Gibsons BC, while Caetani studio artist Cher Mark will greet guests in the Sveva Studio.
Marlene Lowden is an abstract oil painter whose work explores the quiet intelligence and resilient beauty of the natural world. Rather than represent specific scenes, Lowden seeks to evoke the felt experience of being immersed in nature: the hush of a mycelial network, and the rhythm of waves against the shore. Each painting is a reverent gesture, shaped by emotion, intuition, and ecology.
Originally trained in broadcast television, Lowden brings a strong sense of composition and visual storytelling to her large-scale oil paintings. A dedicated studio artist and teacher, she has exhibited widely across British Columbia and is a proud member of the Rise and Repaint network. Her “Blind Contour Homage” series, celebrating Canadian women artists, toured seven public galleries in BC. In 2021, she was named one of “28 Contemporary Canadian Artists to Know” by Create! Magazine. Her work has also been featured in Women United Art Magazine and Art Seen Magazine (UK). She lives and paints in Gibsons, BC, inspired by the coastal forests and ocean surrounding her.
Under her business label, Freaky Faeries, Cher Mark is a doll-maker and multi-media textile artist who has inhabited one of the Caetani artist studios for several years. Her work, which ranges from the weird and wonderful, including embroidery, silverwear, ornaments, hand-stiched dolls, and felt work, is featured in the bi-annual Strange Bazaar, held on the Caetani grounds in June and October, as well as in the Caetani Centre gift shop.
The public is welcome to visit with our artists, learn their processes, and see their latest works during the First Friday Art Trail.
Both the Jüül and Sveva studios, museum, gift shop, and Caetani gallery, featuring our current exhibition Sveva Caetani: Her Life and Art. We will be open for later hours until 6 pm on June 5.