The Diane Farris Gallery is pleased to announce a feature exhibition by Saskatchewan-born artist Wesley Anderson. Anderson reveals the secret lives of plants and flowers in exquisite 8x10” macro transparencies mounted in smooth aluminum light boxes.

The level of detail in Anderson’s work is so fine that terms like stolon, stipule, sepal, axil and filament come to mind. He is fascinated by every hair and pore on the stems and bodies. The new images, based on summer flowers, move from bud through bloom to decomposition. Particularly striking are the shifts in point of view and the partial dissections. In several pairs of work, he follows the stunning flower heads from earlier to later stages of growth as they begin to separate and reveal the fragile structures beneath the petals.

Anderson shoots the plants with a special large-format camera held up by four tripods. The length of the camera supports the macro views, which can be up to five times the scale of the originals. Because he exposes the film for 30 seconds, he takes the botanical photos at night when there is no chance of motion from cars passing in the street. The transparent images are then displayed in self-illuminated viewing frames.

Wesley Anderson was a secondary school art teacher and department head in the North Vancouver School District for almost 30 years. In 1992, the British Columbia Art Teachers’ Association nominated Anderson for BC Art Teacher of the Year. Since his retirement in 1998, he has been the Assistant Director of the Artists for Kids Trust in North Vancouver. Anderson has photographed both exotic and domestic plants during his travels through Europe and Southern Asia. Locally, he maintains an extensive horticultural garden with a mix of native and tropical vegetation.