ROY HENRY VICKERS
serigraph prints
This collection was owned by Miles Primrose, who knew RHV personally as well as Roy’s friend Larry who is featured in some of the prints. These all have run numbers, provenance and are framed. Roy Henry Vickers is a prominent and renowned indigenous artist who is well known on the island and throughout B.C. And indeed, around the world. We are please to make available and showcase these prints for sale. For more information about purchasing these wonderful pieces please contact us or visit the Art in the Barn Gallery.
The crossing portrays the fulfillment of a dream. My friend Larry and I have finally done something we spoke of twenty years ago when I worked for the Saanich Fire Department in Victoria, B.C. We have taken the time to go hunting on horseback in the Rocky Mountains. I will never forget the day we rode back to camp with my first elk, looking forward to a good meal, a campfire, and a night’s sleep. Roy Henry Vickers
A lone eagle sits as a sentinel on Wilf Rock in Clayoquot Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. This area is a favourite fishing spot for many West Coasters. I have seen grey whales, killer whales, sea lions, and seals while angling for the big spring salmon that come by here each year.
I’ve jigged cod and fed them to the eagles not twenty minutes from my home. These are the many things that come to one’s mind to inspire a painting such as Bird’s Eye View. Roy Henry Vickers
I had the occasion to paddle a canoe from Prince Rupert to Kitkatla one Summer, following a route that was used by my ancestors many times.I left the harbour at the wrong time and had to face adverse tides at the mouth of the Skeena River and down the channel to the village. I wished at the time that I could have learned something of the seamanship of my ancestors prior to the voyage.In time, about seventeen hours, my friend and I finally arrived at the village just at sunset. It was this memory that inspired Westcoast Sunset. Roy Henry Vickers
My studio continues to require time to settle in. My wife, Rhonda is with child and our son, William is enjoying his new school on the Tsartlip reserve and comes home with new words every day in the Senchathin language. Our new home is comfortable and quiet. The Saanich people have been welcoming and friendly to us. We are thankful to the Paul family for making room for us on the land of their ancestors. This work brings with it a notice to all our friends and acquaintances that we moved. The white raven is symbolic of our Creator. The Longhouse with smoke rising represents our new home and our presence in it. The snow falls to blanket Mother Earth and the seeds that hold the promise of new life in Spring. Roy Henry Vickers
YA-A and TSI-I are the Tsimshian words for grandfather and grandmother. The original idea and sketch for this work was done by my brother, Arthur Freeman Vickers. It is dedicated to our grandparents, Henry and Kathleen Vickers. The campfire in the scene brings to mind the ancient custom of travelling to hereditary, summer fishing grounds to gather salmon for the winter season. Roy Henry Vickers
Inspired by a massive, 1,700-kilometre canoe journey Vickers participated in during the summer of 1997. The voyage traveled from Hazelton on the Skeena River, out to the Pacific Ocean, and down the coast to Victoria.
The Collaboration: Vickers notes that his deep connection to this piece extends to his childhood friend, Phil Barker. The two first experimented with silkscreen printing together in an art class at Oak Bay High School during the mid-1960s.
Reminiscences over the past twenty-five years since graduating from the class of 1965 of Oak Bay High School in Victoria, B.C. The love and support of family and friends. Relationships that have matured over the years. Loved ones lost and pain endured. The knowledge that seasons change quickly, life is short, and there is much to do.
That wealth is not measured in terms of dollars earned, but in the quality of life.
These are a few thoughts that come to me in the creation of New Moon, Willows Beach.
Roy Henry Vickers
During the fall of 1986, I toured the beautiful Skeena River to photograph Totem polls for a series of works that became known as the Group of Seven. There were many powerful images and the chore of choosing 7 pieces was a difficult one. I am glad that I do not always need to work in series of prints and can work individual pieces such as Moonlit Perch.The village of Kitseguecla provided a number of subjects, but this particular scene continued to haunt me. I visited Skeena Crossing, (the other name for this village) as a child, and this image of the pole with the two birds on top has stayed with me all these years. Roy Henry Vickers
I have been an avid angler now for six years and realize that I will never be able to fish all the rivers in our beautiful country that I would like to fish. I am excited, however, by the thought that I could fish a different stream or river every year for the rest of my life! I have visited the Bulkley River many times; it is only a few hours hike from my childhood home near Hazelton in Northern British Columbia. It was a thrill to return as an adult and to cast a line into those muddy waters, hoping for a strike from the greatest of all sport fish, the mighty steelhead, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This rendition of the river is the result - a natural outpouring of my feelings, of the spiritual uplifting that I experience when I enjoy a river such as Bulkley.
Roy Henry Vickers