If you’re one of the many people who viewed the works on display in the 2022 and 2023 Anonymous Art Shows put on by the Ashcroft HUB, then you already know the work of Ashcroft artist Lorne Rourke; you just don’t realize it.
Now, however, many of his works are no longer anonymous; they are on display at the Sidewalk Gallery in Ashcroft, where they can be viewed by anyone strolling past the Rolgear building across from Safety Mart. He says that he knew Angela Bandelli — who operates and curates the gallery — and her husband Rob Suter, with whom Rourke sometimes plays guitar, but that the show came about when he was at an art open house in Ashcroft. Rourke’s wife Heather heard that Bandelli had space available at the gallery in May and August this year, and recommended Rourke.
He was born in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan in 1950 and moved with his parents to New Westminster in 1955, then to Surrey in 1960. Although he is self-taught, with no professional training, Rourke says that an early interest in art and nature have provided him with an inner sense for depth and perception.
He took an interest in pen-and-ink drawings through the 1970s and later learned the art of serigraphy (silk screening). He hand prints his work, as opposed to using off-set lithography, to create limited edition prints.
During the later part of the 1970s he turned to watercolours. Although he says he he truly enjoys the excitement of watercolours, the time it takes to cut and double matt the works, clean the glass, etc. prompted him to try oil painting through the 1980s.
Rourke has been a member of the Surrey, Langley, Port Kells, and Chilliwack art clubs/centres, and his work has hung in the Fraser Valley Regional Art Exhibition, local galleries, and art/framing shops. Unfortunately, the early 1980s proved to be a trying time to break into the art world, as galleries and shops would soon be calling him to pick up his work, as they were closing their doors due to the recession.
He decided to take a break from painting for a few decades, after developing an interest in screen-printing T-shirts, glass etching, signwriting, calligraphy, and artwork logos. He soon started a hobby business, “Fantasy Designs”, while still working at his regular job at Lindal Cedar Homes from 1975 to 2008. “Talk about burning both ends of the candle!” he laughs.
After retirement, Rourke and his wife Heather moved to Ashcroft in 2014. He says he could not have picked a better place to move to, with all the talent and beauty in the area.
In 2017 Rourke was commissioned to paint an old Irish homestead with a thatched roof for the front cover of a “Rourke” reunion book. At first he decided to try it using acrylics, then switched to watercolour. The project sparked a renewed interest in creating art, and in 2022 he drifted back to acrylics, creating four paintings for the Anonymous Art Show fundraiser at the Ashcroft HUB. All four featured wildlife: a howling wolf, a raven, a kingfisher, and a cougar.
He followed these up with another four acrylic paintings for the 2023 HUB fundraiser. One was of birch trees, one depicted what Rourke calls “Ashcroft thistles”, and the other two featured horses.
“I must be drawn to wildlife and animals,” he notes. “I’m partial to animals, or focusing on an individual item with the background a blur, as opposed to painting landscapes.”
Rourke feels that he is starting to get the “painting bug” back, now that things have settled down. While he has had individual pieces featured in different shows in the past, he notes that this is his first major showing, and he likes the idea that people walking along Railway will be able to enjoy his work, which is on display until the end of May.
“I’ve had a couple of pieces entered in juried exhibitions and in small art shows and clubs in White Rock and Port Kells, but nothing this big,” he explains. In fact, he had so many works to display that Bandelli ran out of space.
“She couldn’t fit them all in, so we’ll have to have another show down the road.”
editorial@accjournal.ca
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