By Steve Hubrecht
Think of it as the chance of a lifetime once again.
A Windermere artist last year found himself chosen, to his own surprise, to be part of a prestigious art show in Tuscany. This year he’s back in Italy again, at the same show.
Stephen McGarva grew up in Windermere with an artistic bent. His talent earned him a scholarship to the Emily Carr University of Art + Design after he graduated from David Thompson Secondary School. Instead he became a mechanic and set off for new life opportunities in southern California. He’s since married, had a family, and lived all around the world; in Bavaria, Boston, Italy and Rhode Island. Despite all the moving around, he says he still feels the valley is home, and eventually he did make good on the artistic promise he showed as a teenager, attending art school as an adult.
For years after art school, McGarva enjoyed art as a passion, not necessarily expecting much to come of it. Then one day last year, completely out of the blue, he was invited by organizers of the Cavalli d’Autore show in Siena, Italy to be part of their event.
He was stunned — the show focuses on horses and although relatively new, has quickly become renowned for attracting top artists. With encouragement from his wife and daughters, McGarva agreed to do the show, spending most of October in Siena (where the famed Palio horse race takes place twice each year in the town’s main square). That lead to McGarva being selected to participate in two other Italian art exhibits, one in Umbria and another in Rome, and to being featured in the annual Cavalli d’Autore book.
It also lead to McGarva being invited back to the 2024 Cavalli d’Autore exhibit.
The Pioneer spoke with him on October 3, the day before the show opened. McGarva and the other artists had just finished setting up for the exhibit, and he was cheerfully enthusiastic about the show, about Siena, about art, and about life in general.
“It’s an amazing group of artists. I feel very lucky, very honoured, to be here,” McGarva told the Pioneer. “Every single piece of art, every interpretation is so different from the others.”
Each artist gets one piece at the show (owing to limited space). McGarva’s piece ‘Providence’ is inspired by a horse his younger daughter Ella rides. Although it looks like a drawing, it is not; it is ‘stippling’, an art style done with an ultra-fine pencil (just 0.1 millimetres thick, about 1/10 the width of a dime). McGarva uses the pen to make many, many dots that collectively create a vivid, photo-realistic image.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
How many dots?
Well, ‘Providence’ is composed of 3.6 million dots (by conservative estimate) and creating it took McGarva 270 hours over the course of three months.
“It’s very committing,” said McGarva, with understatement. “There’s quite literally no room for mistakes. If I feel that I’m not focussed enough, if I’m starting to mentally drift, I have to stop and come back (to the art) later. Because you can be 100-plus hours into a (stippling art work) and then bottle it up in a moment. If you’re not paying attention, and then there’s a big blot of ink, unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do to erase it.”
‘Providence’ is a stippling drawing of a horse of the same name. The horse is owned by famed equestrian trainer and dressage rider Hilda Gurney, who also happens to train Ella. “That allows me a lot of time to photograph and study a horse, how it moves, its musculature, its personality,” said McGarva.
He very clearly remembers the first time he saw Ella ride Providence. “This is a horse that is very forward. Big. Majestic. It really wants to work, but is particular about who its rider is . . . when you see Hilda ride Providence, wow. It’s amazing,” said McGarva. Providence “has the most soulful eyes. And for me, every portrait starts with the eyes. Whether it’s horses or humans, kids, grandparents, military veterans, it all starts at the eyes. And boy, when this horse connects with you through its eyes, it is really meaningful. That’s important. I can’t just pick up a pen and make dots. There has to be a connection first.”
McGarva’s connection to horses started as a teenager in the Columbia Valley, when he spent time with former ?akisq’nuk First Nation Chief Alfred Joseph and the Burgoynes, learning how to ride and care for horses.
“It’s a gift that Alfred gave me, and I’m very grateful,” said McGarva.
This year’s Cavalli d’Autore runs for a month until November 4, with McGarva there for most of the show.
“Siena is a magical place. It’s a city, but it feels very much like a village. People care a lot about community. The atmosphere is amazing. You walk the streets here, and you are literally walking through history,” he said, nothing that this history heavily involves horses.
“The Palio has been running for hundreds of years, twice per year, and they’ve only ever missed two races, when COVID-19 happened,” he said. “The pride and joy and love that Senese (people) feel for their town, for the races, for horses, it’s very apparent.”
PHOTO SUBMITTED
SUBMITTED
