Board of Directors

Miriam was born in Saskatchewan. She took many art classes and was involved with oil painting in her youth on the prairies. As a young adult, pursuing a career and raising a family became her priorities. She has accounting and business education and has had a lengthy career with a variety of companies and organizations in a range of occupations. In 2017, Miriam relocated to Vancouver Island. She was…

Sonja was born in Ontario and moved to BC as a youth. She grew up in Victoria. Her creative side began developing at an early age with making paper dolls, filling up school notebook margins with doodles, making 3D decoupage artwork and spending much time journaling life’s experiences. Her career pursuits took her to Vancouver where she worked in a large advertising firm in Gastown and later went…

Born in Victoria BC, Mark is not an artist but when he and his partner Mae retired to the Comox Valley after 31 years at ICBC Driver Services they looked for things to do. Mae is a great artist so she joined the PEG and seeing they needed help on the board, Mark joined to help out. Mark’s passion is collecting vinyl records and riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle around the Island.

 Teresa Kachanoski is a multimedia artist who recently moved to Merville, Vancouver Island from Newfoundland and Labrador. Her art practice began in Quebec where she was born in 1956. While raising a family she returned to university and completed a BFA in 2005 where she focused on drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking. In her current practice she is delving into the many possibilities of felt-making.…

Carol Imai retired to the Comox Valley 6 years ago from North Vancouver. She had been making cards and lots of crafts for friends and family, especially at Christmas. Once in the valley, she started taking classes in drawing, watercolour and acrylic paints. Most classes were in person but Zoom was also used. She has been very active with the Pearl Ellis Gallery in the past 2 years. Currently she is…

 Kim has been on Vancouver Island for the past 8 years. She came from Ontario after living there for over 50 years raising her family. She and her partner Jim are new to Comox, moving here in July 2021. Loving this beautiful little town. Knowing very few people here, she started volunteering for the Pearl Ellis Gallery as well as joining the Comox Newcomers. Both are now a very important part of her…

Isabelle Durand is a self-taught artist and a retired French Immersion teacher. When she retired, part of her creative journey involved the discovery of a new art medium- Alcohol Ink. She stumbled on it “by accident” after dabbling in watercolour and acrylic paint, and was intrigued by this new medium which has a “mind” of its own and lets one “play with the universe”. Now she likes to…