Bella Charles focuses mostly on landscapes and portraits. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

portraits and landscapes

‘This was my dream’: Charles displays artwork at public exhibit

Mar 6, 2020 | 4:11 PM

Bella Charles, of Sucker River, is feeling like a more established artist since she’s displayed her work at the public gallery in La Ronge’s Mistasinihk Place.

“The La Ronge Arts Council had some space and they didn’t know how to fill it, and I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to show my artwork,” she said. “I want to do this professionally. This was my dream to have my own art show, and to put my name out there and get some work.”

The exhibit, which has more than a dozen pieces, will be featured for the entire month of March and it was launched earlier this week with a formal reception. Charles mentioned those who attended were impressed by her work, adding there were several good comments about her portrait work in particular. After the event, she said some local residents reached out to her to hire her to do commissions.

Charles, 31, has been drawing with pencil since she was a child, but in recent years she’s begun experimenting with other mediums. Now, she mostly works with charcoal, pastels and pencils. As for inspiration, she gets many of her ideas from the natural surroundings of Sucker River or on websites such as Pinterest.

“Lately, the landscapes I get from the lake here because the sunset and sunrises are so beautiful with the different colours,” Charles said. “I get the landscape ideas from there and then my portraits I usually get from magazines or online.”

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Bella Charles, right, at the opening reception earlier this week. (Devin Daniel Bernatchez/Facebook)

Bella Charles is inspired by her surroundings living in Sucker River. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

Charles is also currently a student at Northlands College and she wants to either earn a Bachelor of Arts degree or earn enough credits to join a studio arts program in Saskatoon. She said she wants to learn skills from an established program because it’s taken her a long time to learn what she has on her own.

“People were surprised,” Charles said about the exhibit. “People from Sucker River didn’t even know I did art portraits.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno