An emerging artist in St. Andrews, N.B. is stepping outside of the studio and getting up close and personal with some alpacas in preparation for an upcoming art show.
“I'm tackling the show from a very multimedia approach, so I've got printmaking, I've got drawing, I've got all sorts of paintings,” says Emili Naish.
Naish’s mentor gave her the idea of doing a show on an animal from Kingsbrae Garden in St. Andrews. It took her a while to decide which animal she would choose, but after some time, the alpaca was the clear choice.
“I started reading about alpacas and it clicked,” says Naish. “I just had to figure out how to do entire show about these weird, wacky animals.”
Fellow artist Geoff Slater says it's important to find out as much as you can about your subjects.
“There's a process an artist goes through when they choose a subject to studying things very deeply, finding out all they can, the more information they can dig up about their subject, the more interesting the show,” says Slater.
“It's amazing what you learn from, not only just books, but like being around the alpacas and spending time. You get to know their herd dynamic, you get to know their behaviour of them and it's a very interesting experience for sure,” says Naish.
She says it is an experience that isn't always easy to capture on canvas.
“It can be challenging sometimes,” says Naish. “You get one and you're super set on painting them a certain way and then of course they take off in the other direction or it starts to rain. It takes humility, but I enjoy it.”
The alpaca art show will be on display in August at St. Andrews by-the-Sea.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ashley Blackford
