Ombré

Peter Thomas

Peter Thomas is a graduate with a Diploma of Art -Ceramic Major, Stained Glass Minor from Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland and Post Graduate Fellowship and Travelling Scholarship, Edinburgh College of Arts and Master of Fine Art - Ceramic Major, Printmaking Minor. Claremont Graduate School, California, USA

His teaching career span decades as Consultant and Teacher, Design and Ceramics, New Brunswick College of Craft and Design (NBCCD) Head of studio, 2016-18.. Co-ordinated publicity in schools; worked on the initiatives leading to the co-degree program between NBCCD and University of New Brunswick (UNB), served on a variety of other committees.

He held the position of Assistant Professor, Art Education,Faculty of Education, UNB Taught Ceramics at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia Taught children to compile and illustrate own stories, NFLD Library Program. Assistant Head, Memorial University Art Extension Services (NFLD) Organized and Administered Extension Art Courses. Taught Pottery and did workshops in arts and crafts education for schools.

Nancy Oakley

Nancy E. Oakley is a first nation artist of Mi’kmaq and Wampanoag descent. She was raised in Mashpee, Massachusetts, where her father was Supreme Sachem (grand chief ) of the Wampanoag Nation, and after art school decided to move to her mother’s reserve, the Eskasoni First Nation reserve in Cape Breton Nova Scotia to better understand her Mi’kmaq heritage.

She has always been involved in art her whole life, beginning as a small child, traditional dancing and making her own regalia and beadwork. She eventually went to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico to study photography and tried her hand at traditional pottery. After graduating, she moved to Nova Scotia and studied for a year at the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, taking courses in weaving, jewelery, photography and pottery. As an artist, she creates culturally significant vessels that imbue her spiritual and traditional knowledge and honour her role as a mother. She creates her pieces by using the wheel or hand building larger sculptural vessels and finds inspiration in nature and the creation of life. She incorporates traditional practices in her creations, such as stone polishing and smoke firing.

She has also begun to recreate the traditional pottery techniques of the Mi’kmaq, by harvesting and processing local clay and traditionally firing pieces in an open fire. These pieces are later embellished with traditional Mi’kmaq black ash basketry, intricate beadwork and/or the spiritual element of sweetgrass.

Born in the tiny village of Shediac River, Éveline Gallant Fournier has lived in Edmundston since the late 1970s. She works in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, installations, digital art and Land Art. Public art has also been part of her journey: examples include Khronos, a monumental work on permanent display at the New Brunswick Botanical Garden.

Éveline's art work is focused on research.  Always exploring and in search of new knowledge, she participated in 4 artist residencies: bronze sculptures, Atelier du bronze, Inverness, Quebec - large-scale ceramic sculptures, Edmundston Art Center - sculptures in the ancient Japanese technique of raku, Atelier Josiane Vedrine, Bic, Quebec - and in Land Art, Aux trois Plaquebières, Île Lamèque. She has also initiated a number of artistic events and realized several community participatory arts projects.

Eveline has received several grants from the New Brunswick Arts Board for creation research, professional development and for regional community arts projects; and was also awarded prizes in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and France.  She was godmother for the Atlantic Visual Arts Festival in 2014; and in 2016, she received the prestigious Prix Éloize as visual artist of the year. Éveline has a long list of individual and group exhibitions to her credit in Canada, the United-States, in France, Portugal and Tunisia.