Cori Mearns
"Village Girl Studio"

Hello, I'm Cori Mearns. Painting is my way of translating the beauty of our part of the world into memorable, historical moments.

In my early years of painting, my love of flowers and birds is what drew me to watercolours. I love, love, love the interaction between paper and flowing, vibrant color and painting large florals and precious birds brought me great joy.

After painting for many years and taking any class I could, I now wanted to capture the charming towns and beautiful views of Vancouver Island I'm so grateful to live by. As I strolled through each location I realized I couldn't capture the whole scene...I was looking for a unique perspective - a higher vantage point - a bird's eye view. People often ask if I have a drone I take pictures with and then paint them?....no I use my imagination.

While taking many pictures for reference, the inspiration comes from inside. I have had the privilege of hand drafting houses and the experience of building them together with my husband, to draw on, but in many cases my paintings don't show all the buildings. My goal is to show the essence of a place and where it's located - and share the whole picture. Once the painting is completed it is reproduced into prints and art cards for local and international visitors to take home.

More recently, I have been additionally interested in capturing sea mammals and the perspective of seeing them above the water line as well as below.

I am always looking for new inspirations and love to take those images back to my Shawnigan Lake studio and get to work!

My most exciting recent opportunity was to be featured at the Malahat Skywalk, where I was invited to paint on site for 2 days and and then have my originals showcased for 6 weeks. The original SkyWalk painting was purchased and hangs at point of sale in the entrance.

I am thrilled to be invited to the Visions Art Studio Tour in July and look forward to chatting with you.

"I'm just an artist standing in front of beauty asking to share the love I see."

Cori Mearns, Watercolour Artist
Village Girl Studio
Instagram: villagegirlstudio
(250) 744-0168
(appointments for viewing studio)

Art card locations:

Malahat SkyWalk gift shop (Malahat)
Market 1750 (Shawnigan Lake)
Sweet Meadows Market (Mill Bay)
Salish Sea Art Gallery (Cowichan Bay)
Maritime Centre (Cowichan Bay)
The Crazy Daisy Garden Shoppe (Mill Bay)