Alora Griffin
Alora Griffin Artist

BACKGROUND:

Alora Griffin is a recently retired architect who arrived in Comox 2 weeks before the pandemic shut the world down, so she spent her free time talking to dog-walkers and walking along the shoreline. Alora was born in Tofino, raised in Ucluelet and used to spend summers on Cortes Island, where her great-grandparents homesteaded over a century ago. Since Alora was always the best artist in her classes she decided to attend UBC, where she obtained a degree in Fine Arts History. She also enrolled in studio courses, including a drawing course with B.C. Binning and a printmaking course with Tony Onley. Alora then transferred to Art Education where she studied painting with Ian Thomas and ceramics with Jean Weakland. After teaching high school art in New Zealand and Vancouver, Alora applied to the School of Architecture and obtained a degree in architecture.

While Alora has explored other media over the years, including drawing, acrylic painting, ceramics and photography, she’s been focusing on watercolour painting for the past decade. She enjoys playing with water and colour, and likes to incorporate the unpredictable effects in her paintings. In her recent paintings she’s been trying to capture the beauty of the shorelines while they still exist as places to explore and enjoy. The shorelines, where land meets water, are becoming more threatened and threatening as our planet warms.

Alora recently exhibited her watercolour paintings of shorelines of Haida Gwaii, the Skeena River, Qualicum Beach, Cortes Island, Ucluelet and Comox, at a solo show at the Pearl Ellis Gallery, where she also volunteers and teaches.