THE VANCOUVER COURIER, Wednesday, September 4 1991

Artist finds muse on lush Lasqueti

By Margaret Peterson
The rain is beating down on the roof of Vancouver artist Joyce Woods' studio. Long feathery veils of water form on the evergreen clematis that frames a large window overlooking her back yard.

The sunflowers in her garden bow with water. Inside her renovated garage studio, Woods gardens are lively--and dry.

"It felt really good to just go out and be spontaneous and fresh," says Woods 36, of her recent series of colourful, impressionistic natural scenes of Lasqueti Island. Cultivated Iris gardens, moody cedar groves and serene clearings are among 11 large paintings by Woods on display at the Fifty-Six Gallery until September 21.

In a scene from the porch of her friend's cabin, Woods uses loose, energetic brushstrokes to capture the soft, early morning light as it moves across a clearing in the woods. One can almost smell the aroma of the forest when confronted by gigantic cedar trees in her paintings.

Woods' romantic depictions of iris gardens are rich with texture and colour.

"I know some people are going to say, "Hey Joyce, haven't I seen those irises before? But they're not Van Gogh's--they're my own." Painted on three separate trips to the Gulf Island, Woods' recent series represents her coming out of the studio, so to speak. This is the first time I've painted the outdoors," explains the secondary school art instructor, visual arts writer and illustrator.

Each of her recent paintings was completed in three to four hours. "I was overwhelmed with the place. I was almost in a frenzy," says Woods, running her hand through her shoulder length hair. While painting Varney's Pond, Woods was determined not to let the wind and the onslaught of rain stop her. "Nancy Varney held down the canvas to stop the wind from whipping it around." The pine needles and mosquitoes stuck in the painting are testimony to Woods' story.

One night, she painted a monochromatic forest scene by candlelight. In the morning she had to fill in the white areas she'd missed. "I get inspired and I just want to carry the idea to the end in one gust of a breath."

Since 1978, Woods has exhibited widely in the lower mainland, as well as in Seattle and Edmonton. Last year her interest in fabrics and the motivations of clothing designers led her to create her Clothing Series of monoprints, etchings and oil paintings. In a dramatic oil triptych titled Wedding Sweet, a vintage gauze wedding dress is folded over a hanger and flanked on either side by a scene of Niagara Falls and a kitsch ceramic poodle clad in bow tie and rhinestone sunglasses.

Her interest in clothing progressed to a series of large, witty monoprint assemblages exhibited last summer at the Community Arts Council of Vancouver Gallery. One of her pieces is a portrait of William S. Burroughs with a gun and a silhouette of a sailboat. A man's brown overcoat lies flat below the print--all encased in plexiglass. "Burroughs used to steal overcoats to buy junk, and he killed his wife with a gun,"explains Woods.

Of her recent series of gardens and forest settings, Woods says: "I used to think painting scenery was too easy and portraits were more challenging." However, her first painting trip to Lasqueti Island last February "humbled" her. "I wasn't able to get the contrasts." Vowing to return, Woods made the trek back in early spring and stayed in her friend's rustic cabin, isolated on 35 acres.

"Painting the forest was very cathartic for me." Woods says quietly. She says often during her tempestuous childhood she'd spend hours playing in the woods by her home in Surrey. "It's nice to be able to lose yourself in a romantic, warm way." Woods' landscapes will be on display next March a Doheny Fine Art Gallery, 1811 West First Avenue.