Oil-Free Coast Artists
Over 50 artists…including some of Canada’s most celebrated and many of whom are First Nations – have used their language of art to portray our fragile coast. The artists have donated all of these incredible original works to Raincoast’s efforts to keep our west coast tanker-free. Over $100,000 was raised in the two auctions that sold the art. Remaining art is being sold at retail value and can be viewed in the shop section of our website.
Artist Bios
Robert Davidson
Haida artist Robert Davidson is one of Canada’s most respected and important contemporary artists.
Mark Hobson
Trained as a biologist, Mark taught high school science before devoting his time to painting in watercolours, oils, and acrylics. His work has won awards in the USA, Canada, and Europe.
Roy Henry Vickers
Canadian artist Roy Henry Vickers is a world-renowned printmaker, painter, carver, author, and designer whose artwork is held in museums and private collections across Canada.
Mae Moore
Known mostly for her music, Mae Moore writes songs that evoke connection to place and to the personal.
Robert Bateman
Besides being one of Canada’s best-known artists, Bateman is a spokesperson for many environmental issues.
Mike Svob
Mike’ Svob’s paintings are held in private and corporate collections throughout the world and featured in International Artists Magazine, Magazin’Art, Artist Magazine, and American Artist among others.
Carol Evans
Carol is a self-taught artist, developing skills with watercolours over a period of thirty years. Her work has achieved international acclaim and is represented in exhibitions and private collections worldwide.
Linda M. Feltner
Linda Feltner specialized in the precision of natural history drawings and scientific illustration which has given her art its trademark appearance.
Christian Morrisseau
Christian Morrisseau paints paints his animal images, landscape, his father and children, his tradition and legends in the Woodland style of his father…
Ben Fox
Ben is a multi-disciplinary artist, who creates in paint, film, and photography. His paintings reflect his deep love for the forests, rivers, and coastlines of BC.
Cheryl Samuel
Cheryl has turned her past expertise in teaching and weaving to wood-turned sculptures. ‘Everyone Waits for the Salmon’ is a heart-wrenching cry to stop the inevitable destruction that a pipeline would bring.
Dorset Norwich-Young
Dorset’s passion for the beauty and wildness of the BC coast shows in her painting. She is strongly committed to making the oil-free coast campaign a successful one.
Murray Phillips
Murray has a strong desire to express the spiritual in his paintings. He transports his studio by canoe, sailboat, or tent trailer where he can spend several months camping and painting.
Collin Elder
Hoping to evoke a vivid sense of direct experience, Collin paints stories of our reciprocity with the fluid and ever-changing natural landscape
David McEown
Canadian artist David McEown has used the medium of watercolour for the past twenty-five years to explore and express many of the Earth’s disappearing wilderness areas
Alison Watt
Alison Watt is a visual artist and writer whose painting and writing are both informed by the natural world. She teaches painting in her studio on Protection Island (BC) and abroad (France).
Peggy Sowden
Multifaceted Peggy Sowden attended fine art school, worked as a naturalist and a veterinarian, and painted the BC coast for many years; art and nature are interwoven in a lifelong passion.
Daniela Petosa
Daniela Petosa’s fascination with clay began in Mexico where she first learned traditional wheel techniques at Instituto Allende Art College.
Elise Quarmby
Elise has a style that marries timeless, fluid design with progressive ideas. She continues to explore different techniques in painting and jewelry design.
Susan Ellenton
Susan brings her love of nature, interest in technical innovation, and exploration of deep knowing into her work which is achieving international attention.
Linda Heslop
The most published caver artist worldwide in the 1990s Linda has since turned her full attention to fine art following her love of West Coast images.
Sheila Karrow
Sheila’s paintings communicate both a literal and metaphorical understanding of the natural world. Her carefully rendered images reveal the intensity and interconnectedness of life.
Dianne Bersea
CFA artist Dianne Besea’s background in graphic design, fine art, natural history illustration, and exhibit design put experience and knowledge behind her strong colours and stylized imagery.
Gaye Adams
During the three decades of Gaye’s art career, her focus has been painting what delights her most: the effects of atmosphere and light.
Linda Dayan Frimer
With a history of dedicating her work to charity, LInda Frimmer’s vibrant watercolour, acrylic, and oil, murals hang in synagogues, hospitals and galleries.
Bill Helin
Out of this world: Native artist Bill Helin has clients from around the globe and his jewellery has travelled into space.
Jeffrey Gordon Whiting
Award-winning sculptor, author, impresario, and environmental advocate, Jeff is president and founder of Artists for Conservation.
Julia Hargreaves
Julia Hargreaves is an internationally published wildlife artist whose work is represented in BC, Alberta and US galleries
Ben Davidson
Ben is a Haida artist who draws upon his knowledge of traditional Haida design to create innovative and unique pieces that are sought after around the world.
Harold Allanson
Harold’s paintings are bold, realistic works often expressed in strong colours, revealing water reflections late in the day, early morning sunlight, or deep shadows.
Michael O’Toole
Michael’s subjects include landscapes, portraits, marine, architecture, and wildlife. His work is represented in private and corporate collections and several galleries across Canada.
David Goatley
David’s portraits have included a prime minister, speaker, and premier; three lieutenant governors; leaders in academia, business, law, medicine, and the arts; as well as many individuals and families.
Ian Reid
Heiltsuk artist Ian Reid draws inspiration from his culture and elders. In addition to being featured in galleries and exhibits, his carvings will adorn the big house in Bella Bella.
Megan Dulcie Dill
An emerging BC artist whose paintings are in collections across North America, Megan’s work comes alive through texture, colour, and shifting lines.
Esther Sample
A past commercial fisherman, Ester’s passion for the sea was replaced with painting. In 2011 she won the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s Salmon Stamp award with the painting Hunger Strikes.
D.F. Gray
D.F Gray, designated “Premier Pastellist of Canada” by the Pastel Society of Canada, is dedicated plein air artist.
Terry Isaac
Internationally acclaimed wildlife artist Terry Isaac finds inspiration in large dramatic panoramas as well as close-up views of animal behaviour.
Ray Ward
Ray’s dramatic west coast paintings can be found in private collections in Canada, the USA, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Lissa Calvert
Lissa Calvert’s images grace thousands of Canadian and US homes in the form of original paintings, posters, art cards, and limited edition prints.
Chili Thom
Chili Thom’s bold and unique style won him Best in Show at the 2012 Federation of Canadian Artists Landscapes exhibit.
Brent Cooke
Brent’s use of negative space and ability to capture the movement and interaction of his subjects has been widely complimented.
Carl Chaplin
Having toured the globe many years ago, Carl is now a non-flying, non-driving, stay-at-home-and-paint-all-day kind of guy. Millions of reproductions of his works have been distributed worldwide.
Janice Robertson
Janice’s paintings are in commercial galleries and collections throughout the world. She is also a popular and well-respected workshop instructor.
W. Allan Hancock
Allan’s work has twice appeared on the Canadian Wildlife Habitat Conservation Stamp, and two books exclusively feature his paintings.
Kindrie Grove
Kindrie’s work is featured in galleries across Canada, in international private and corporate collections and at the Toronto Congress Centre’s “Kindrie Grove Wing.
April White
April worked as a field geologist before directing her talents toward art that honours her heritage, the natural and the mythological world.
Todd Stephens
Gitlaxdax artist Todd Stephens graduated from the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art’s Fine Arts Diploma program in 2009 and won the YVR Art Foundation Scholarship Award in 2008 and 2010.
Kevin Johnson
Kevin is a self-taught pencil artist who strives to create photorealistic detail by relying on texture and tonal values of the subject.
Carol Young Bagshaw
Carol is a descendent of the Eagles of Haida Gwaii. Using alder and cedar, she carves wish passion for the animal life that are part of her and her larger family.
Shawn Aster
Fueled by his Gitkxaala (Kitkatla) culture, environment and mothers interest in art, shawn followed his passion for art.
Roberta Sutherland
Roberta was born and raised on BC’s West Coast never far from a shoreline. She was the Geneva Editart “Cercle des Amis” artist in 2012.
Stewart Marshall
Stewart grew up in Montreal, where he also received his art education. Intrigued by First Nations art, he travelled to the West Coast, built a kayak, and transported himself and his art supplies north.
Paul Jorgensen
Paul Jorgensen graduated from the (now) Emily Carr University of Art + Design. His trip to the Great Bear Rainforest deeply concerned him with questions of sustainability in such a delicate and pristine ecosystem.
Dominik J. Modlinski
Dominik was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1970 and graduated with a Fine Arts degree from the Ontario College of Art in 1993. His extreme painting expeditions have taken him around the globe.
Craig Benson
A self-taught master carver of stone and wood, and creator of original bronzes, Craig’s works are carved from a single piece of material. They represent coastal and marine life in fine, exquisite detail.
Leanne Hodges
For more than twenty years, Leanne has pursued an art practice while developing a remote charter boat company and raising her son.
Cathy Stewart
Inspired by Mother Nature and her work in the Canadian Arctic and around the world, Cathy Stewart’s work is displayed in galleries in Tofino and Ucluelet.
Laura Wasylyshen
Laura’s painting was recently chosen by Robert Bateman as the winner of a Greenpeace Canada supported art contest.
Perry Rath
In his 20 years of artistic pursuits, Perry Rath has undertaken installations, objects/artifacts, paintings, printmaking, collaborations, and educational efforts such as Art and Advocacy and 4000 Reasons.
Alan Wylie
Alan graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1960 and immigrated to Nova Scotia in 1967, where he became a full-time artist, teacher, and art gallery owner.
