The Studio Gallery Association | Mid-Winter’s Dreaming

May 16

The Studio Gallery Association
Mid-Winter’s Dreaming

FOCUS & EDGE GALLERIES
June 5 - 27, 2026
Opening Reception: June 5, 5-7pm

Winter is a time for many of us to go inward to pause, reflect, plan, and dream. Ideas percolate and ferment. We slow down, slide in, climb out and eventually re-surface. This collection of work sees each participating artist speaking in their own voice about the seasonal rhythms in the north, of light and darkness, and of the magic and contemplative nature of winter.

Each artist has interpreted the overall theme slightly differently. Rob Ingram has created watercolours of dreamers and their dreams set against winter landscapes.

Shiela Alexandrovich's work speaks to being in-wombed and entombed by mid-winter.

Janet Patterson has referenced her own dream journals that she has kept over the years and has brought some of her winter sleep experiences to life through art.

Neil Graham is presenting his own unique style of magical and mysterious winter landscapes.

Maureen Morris' masks, Paul Baker's critters and Heather Hyatt’s creations emit a dreamlike quality steeped in northern lore.

What binds this exhibit together is the artists' collective experience of living through multiple northern winters when we have all periodically felt the need to disconnect and explore our inner worlds.

The Studio Gallery Association is a group of professional artists from the Yukon and Atlin, B.C. In its close to 30 years of existence, the group has had a number of very successful shows, including "Dark Alice", "The Chess Show", and "The Tarot Show" at the Yukon Arts Centre, and "Air", "Skin", and "Multitudes" at Arts Underground.

SHIELA ALEXANDROVICH

Shiela is Yukon born and raised, and has spent her adult life off grid in rural Yukon.

Shiela has always been a handworker – her hands have been her primary teachers and many, many hours of practice have refined her techniques. She had the good fortune to be under the guidance of Ted Harrison for two years of high school art – the extent of her formal training. Ted encouraged the art of looking at the world, rather than the world of art. His encouragement has stayed with Shiela.

Collaborative work is one of Shiela’s learning tools, teaching is another. Working with other artists pushes her beyond her known horizons; new skills and perspectives add depth to her creative efforts.

It is important to Shiela that she enjoys her days fully – her family, art, gardens, and animal friends are all part of the mosaic of her life. Art enables her to translate some of the pleasure of being alive into a form that is solid. The beauty that she lives with each day in the Yukon’s wilderness is the material that she uses, and the colours that she is drawn to. Shiela creates art as a way to celebrate the power and wonder of the natural world, and all that it offers to her.

PAUL BAKER

Paul lives and works from his workshop at Crag Lake in the southern Yukon. He has always been a ‘builder of things’. As a lifelong tradesman, Paul has a passion for tools, but all tools are not created equal. Old, broken, cheap quality tools need love too, and do not belong in the dump, but in art. Pieces rescued from individual scrap piles, public dumps, flea markets, and friends provide the elements that grace many of the parts used in his sculptures.

Paul’s sculptures often start with a single piece that dictates the form it wants to become. Further inspiration is drawn from the nature that surrounds his rural Yukon home. Additional tools and scrap metal are coaxed into shapes required to complete the sculpture. Paul focuses on form, flow, and movement. With an eye for detail, subtle elements grace many parts of the finished piece. Paul finds that each new sculpture creates a need to experiment and seek new approaches.

NEIL GRAHAM

Neil is a self-taught, self-alleged realist, but perhaps a folk artist. His works edge the familiar with abstract notions, compressing time and space into intensely personal contexts. Diagnosed with schizo–affective disorder, Neil imbues his art with a unique perspective. He is known for his whimsical figurative work and his rock paintings of Kwanlin, Haida Gwaii and Nahanni

Born and raised in the eastern arctic, Neil moved to the Yukon in 1989 where he helped raise a family. He has been a professional visual artist since 1992.

HEATHER HYATT

Heather is known primarily as a portrait and realist artist, although in more recent years she has branched out into surrealism, sculpture, and collage.

She obtained her BFA at Concordia University in Montreal in 1990, after which time she returned to Atlin, B.C. She worked mainly in graphite for several years, creating realist portraiture of local residents. At the end of the nineties, she moved to Whitehorse and pursued her love of trompe l’oiel, having had several shows in this genre. She began working in coloured pencil, oil and papier mâché clay.

It was also at this time that Heather joined the Studio Gallery Association. As a member of this collective, she took part in “The Tarot Show” and “Dark Alice” at the Yukon Arts Centre, and the “Air” show at Arts Underground. In 2002 she had a solo show at the Yukon Arts Centre, ”Dante’s Divine Comedy”, twenty-eight graphite drawings on paper.

She was among competition winners in American Artist Drawing Magazine in 2004. Heather has had other solo shows and participated in numerous group shows in Yukon, Vancouver and Montreal. Her work is in the Yukon Permanent Collection and well as in private collections in Canada and Europe. She is a former member of Yukon Artists at Work.

ROB INGRAM

Rob has been living, working and painting in the Yukon for over 45 years. He began using watercolour when he was 20 and has worked in that medium over the intervening 50+ years.

A founding member of the Studio Gallery Association, Rob was the president almost since its inception, and up until 2024. With the group, he has shown in several exhibitions, most notably the Chess Show, Tarot Show, and Dark Alice at the Yukon Arts Centre, and several at Arts Underground.

Known primarily as a fantasy artist, Rob has taken to painting birds and some other wildlife over the last few years, possibly as a reaction to working on fantasy paintings for the Dark Alice show for three years.

MAUREEN MORRIS

Maureen was born and raised in Vancouver, B.C. After graduating from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, she worked for two years as a jade carver, then headed north with her stone carving tools. She fell in love with the small town of Atlin and established a studio there, where she began experimenting with antler and horn. Over 50 years later, antler – primarily moose and caribou – is still her medium of choice. Stylized birds and fish are her most frequent subjects.

In 2003 Maureen embarked on a new direction, carving human faces and masks for “The Chess Show” at the Yukon Arts Centre. This was followed in 2006 by “Headwear, Helmets, Hats and Halos”, a series of portraits of human head wear through recorded history. In 2007 she participated in “The Tarot Show”, also at the Yukon Arts Centre. Recently she has been carving bird masks as well as continuing her birds at rest and flight. Maureen’s current direction is toward large bird masks with many different adornments attached.

Maureen has had numerous solo and group shows in British Columbia, Alaska and the Yukon. Her carvings can be found in the Yukon Permanent Art Collection and in private collections around the world, as well as in several galleries in Canada and the United States.

JANET PATTERSON

Janet Patterson is a Whitehorse multi-media artist, curator and educator.

Her work spans assemblage art, textiles, wearable art, and installation. It often deals with themes of memory, transformation, and environmental issues of our time.

Janet’s projects frequently involve knowledge-sharing through collaborations, demonstrations/workshops and residencies. She has had numerous solo and group shows in the Yukon and Alaska, and has curated several exhibitions, including a major show at the Yukon Arts Centre. She has participated in juried residencies both within Canada and internationally.

Her work can be found in private collections across Canada and internationally.

Past Exhibitions

Upcoming Exhibitions