In her new show at the Pearl Ellis Gallery, Sofie Skapski uses her art to bring opposite sides of the globe closer together.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to spend two months of the past two years in Australia, Sofie has produced a vibrant series of paintings exploring the differences and similarities to be found in nature, here and in Australia.

Stepping into the gallery is like entering a botanic garden, lushly overflowing with rampant trees and plants. One gallery wall features local images and the other images of the area around Melbourne, Australia, while the back wall displays the title work that brings it all together.

Sofie's style flows from soft-edged representational works to lyrical mosaic-like paintings, all executed in water miscible oils. She explores colour, light and shade, concentrating on the spaces between her subjects as much as the subjects themselves.

鈥淚 want to capture what it is about a certain thing that speaks to me,鈥� says Sofie. 鈥淚t could be the way the light hits a branch, a cottage secretively hidden in the shadows of an overgrown garden, or an unusual and intriguing flower.

"My style expresses my deepest reactions to an object; I might approach a painting with the intention of executing it in one way only to have it develop in an entirely different direction.鈥�

Sofie is an international artist with work in private collections in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia and England. She most recently presented Walking the Red Road, a solo exhibition, this February in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne. Sofie has lived in the Comox Valley since 2004 and paints out of her home studio in Courtenay.

Bridging the Hemispheres is on display at the Pearl Ellis Gallery from May 18 to May 30. The gallery  is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

The meet and greet opening reception takes place May 21 from 1 to 4 p.m. Come and chat with the artist while enjoying tasty snacks. Sofie will be in attendance at the gallery throughout the show, painting on location and answering your questions. Her works are available in a wide range of sizes and prices, and cards and prints are also available.

The Pearl Ellis Gallery is on the lower level of 1729 Comox Ave. in Comox. For more information on shows being presented at the gallery, go to www.pearlellisgallery.com.

鈥� Pearl Ellis Gallery