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The world is her canvas

Local artist passes extensive knowledge on through children’s art workshops
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Primary Colours Cary Campbell-Lopes helps out members of her artworkshop. Photo by Holly Fraughton.

Kids decked out in their finest paint-smeared smocks crowd around a table at Myrtle Philip Community School, tiny brows furrowed in concentration. Occasionally, one jumps up and runs to the side of the room to give their painting project a quick zap with a hairdryer.

They are hard at work, finishing up the latest project — a portfolio — for their art class, taught by local artist, Cary Campbell-Lopes.

Campbell-Lopes is a bit of a Jill-of-all-trades in the local art world. She trained as a graphic designer, but after she and her husband, Paolo, moved into their house in Whistler, with its sunny, wrap-around deck, she was inspired to paint her surroundings.

Things kind of spiraled from there, and since her first show at Millennium Place, she has become known around town for her huge pet portraits and elaborate body paintings.

You may have noticed Campbell-Lopes’s latest piece of art at the most recent big soiree in town, but it probably wasn’t on the wall. It was more than likely parading around the room, painted onto the skin of a scantily clad model.

She first got involved in body painting a few years ago with a project for Cornucopia, which required painting 20 women. Over the years she has found herself getting more involved with event designing, whether it be through body painting or airbrushing bodysuits on models.

“We stepped it up and took it more into an art form, where instead of dressing a model up behind the scenes and bringing her out when you’re paying for the model to sit there anyway, we actually do it in public,” Campbell-Lopes explains. “We cover the bits that we have to cover, we bring her out and we just treat that as the entertainment for the evening.”

She also creates custom-made outfits for each design, which can be pretty elaborate. For this year’s ARTrageous festival, they turned their model into a retro ski poster, taking her outfit from a g-string into a full-on retro ski suit. And for an upcoming wedding, Campbell-Lopes will transform a model into a peacock, complete with a full-plume.

“Generally, it goes on really well and it looks great, and its more impressive on a body than if it were on a canvas.”

It seems that artistic creativity runs in her blood. Her grandfather was a photographer for the Edinburgh Tattoo, her grandmother was an oil painter who made intricate hand-carved marionettes, her mother was an interior designer, and her three brothers are also artists, who work in the film industry, model-making and design.

And art is still very much a family affair for Campbell-Lopes. Husband Paolo and her older daughter come to the classes to help out, and her younger daughter, Tazara, is a very active and willing participant in any art-related activity.

“She just loves it. I can’t keep a pencil away from her,” says Campbell-Lopes with a laugh. “I have to literally hide everything in the breakfast table, otherwise she can’t stop.”

But the kids’ art workshops are a particular passion for Campbell-Lopes.

“I love working with really young kids because I’ve found, particularly with my two girls, between two and probably five, you get the most amazing art out of them, stuff that will stay with you forever,” Campbell-Lopes explains.

She began teaching art from her apartment when she moved to Whistler. One of the first projects she did was a painted door in her apartment.

“The kids had to sit in my living room at eight teeny little stools around this door,” she recalls.

Now, she has been running her art workshops out of Myrtle Philip school for almost three years, teaching kids from ages 6 until 12, with a maximum class size of 20. Her classes build on things the children learn in school, like colour theory.

“I think the thing is with school classes is you can only get so far, and then that’s the end of class,” says Campbell-Lopes, “Here, I try and take it one or two steps beyond that, because I think with most kids’ art, they just stop too early.”

Lopes also tries to push the limits of their art, and show the children how their work can be transformed.

“I try and keep it light-hearted, and they do go home with fun stuff, and they’re really, really proud of it, which is great.”

One of the most popular projects has been a pet painting, where kids completed elaborate colour-blocked portraits of their own pet.

“It was a long job for them — I think it was at least two weeks — it was very intensive… and it was a struggle to keep them at it.”

But the finished product was impressive — hung on a dog or cat collar with varnished pet treats glued around the border.

Rory Ross-Kelly is in Grade 2 at Myrtle Philip and has been a participant in Campbell-Lopes’s workshops for almost two years. She was pretty pleased with how her pet portrait turned out — “His name is Chester and he is a little miniature poodle” — and gave the finished product to her grandparents.

A collection of the kids’ work is currently on display at Esquires Coffee Shop, and Campbell-Lopes hopes to have a big exhibition at Millennium Place at the end of the year to showcase their efforts.