Becky McMahon has been working in Oriental Brush style for over 15 years and has had many of her paintings in National, regional and local shows. She has received several awards and in 2016 was choosen for the Glacier National Park artists residency. Her work is now on tour with Parks Canada for Canada’s 150 Birthday. Her art cards and prints can be found at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in the Eight Treasures Gift Shop where she has been a featured artist for the last 10 years. Her painting ‘Merganser Rocks’ was inspired by a trip by kayak on Adams Lake where she spotted the two mergansers resting on a rock dappled by the sun.
Her serene floral’s, engaging birds, lively animals and dramatic landscapes show the many facets of her love for Oriental Brush Painting. Over the last decade and a half she has taught herself the traditional style of painting and then went on to find her own voice, working from her joy of nature. She has always been driven to observe the natural world she loves and with the aid of photographs she records what she observes and is careful to look for the smallest details of the plant, bird and animal world.
Becky loves to experiment with different Oriental papers and techniques so she can express what she sees in her minds eye. While she does use reference material for some of her paintings, she often works without any and finds she can capture the essence of her subject better when she doesn’t follow a photo. She blends the East with her Western view of her world to create her unique paintings. Oriental in her techniques but Western in many of her subjects.
She has Active Member Status in the Federation of Canadian Artists and belongs to the Thompson, Nicola, Shuswap Chapter. Becky was the volunteer gallery manager for the Arts Council of Surrey’s new gallery space in the Newton Cultural Centre. She is featured in the ‘Artist’s of British Columbia’ Volumn 2 and won an Award of Excellence for her landscape painting ‘Stormy Peaks’ the 2010 show with the FCA Fraser Valley Chapter. She also received Third Place award for her painting ‘Bamboo Window II’ at the Surrey Art Gallery, Arts 2008 show. She has received Best of show for ‘Cliff Hanger’ and also First Place In Watercolour for it as well in 2015. She is a participant and organizer for the ‘Artists Collaborative in Blind Bay’ in 2016.
Click on any of the paintings to obtain a larger view.
Art in the Shuswap 