Mate

When Vancouver/Hornby Island Island artist Rae Maté heard The Lord's Prayer recited in first grade, she believed that the phrase, "Our Father who "art" in Heaven" referred to the Creator indulging His passion for drawing and painting. She has been passionate about doing both all her life.

Since graduating from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1986, Rae's paintings of still life and people, as well as fanciful cats, dogs and crocodiles have been exhibited on Hornby Island, Quadra Island, Qualicum, Vancouver and Richmond BC.

Rae also loves teaching art to preschoolers, has her own line of art cards and magnets and is a children's book illustrator, now working on her second picture book for Tradewind Books. Her original flower and landscape paintings can be found in guest rooms of many Coast Hotels in BC, and in Edmonton, Alberta.

'November, Helliwell Park, Picnic Rock'

24"x36" acrylic on linen

"The loop trail over the bluffs and through the dappled-green and rosy-brown woods at Helliwell Provincial Park is my favorite walk on Hornby. Over the past eighteen years whenever I have been on-island, I come here most days to walk. I never tire of Helliwell. It offers a fresh view and mood, always changing with the flow of time, light and weather. Its peace and beauty is inspiring in any season.

When my daughter was very young, she called this group of seat-and-table-shaped rocks "Picnic Rock". We later learned that her friend's family called them "Restaurant Rocks", and this was our place to stop for a snack along the trail.

This painting was created from a photograph I took on a still day last fall. My daughter had graduated from high school and was living abroad for a nine-month work/study program. Under a cloudy sky Picnic Rock resembled an empty nest."