OPENS August 6th - 25th
FROM PLANK TO PALETTE
Art By Tony Grove
From Plank to Palette traces the journey from hand-built hulls to painted forms, honouring the artistry of boatbuilding through bold, expressive canvases. These works celebrate the soul of coastal craft—where every vessel tells a story.
Artist Statement
This body of work draws from a life spent among boats—building them, observing them, and now painting them. From Plank to Palette is a visual conversation between craft and canvas, where the structure and spirit of traditional boatbuilding are reimagined through paint. Each piece begins with a real vessel—often one I’ve built or photographed—its lines, form, and character serving as a foundation. But the work moves beyond documentation. I use acrylics on large-format canvases to translate these forms into expressive, often abstracted interpretations, allowing colour, texture, and gesture to evoke the weathered dignity, the labour, and the deep cultural resonance of boats in coastal life.
My process blends intention and improvisation. I might begin with a precise curve of a sheerline or the shadow under a hull, but layers of paint shift and obscure the details, echoing how time reshapes memory. Sometimes I start with a realistic water surface, only to find the painting asking for an impressionist sky or a wash of colour that dissolves the literal into the emotional.
At its heart, this show is about connection—to craft, to place, to the sea—and about how the beauty of functional forms can move us when seen through a different lens. Boats carry stories. This work is my way of telling them.
EVENTS:
Artist pARTy: August 9th, 6-8pm. Please join us!
ABOUT
Tony Grove is a passionate explorer and creator, with a diverse career that spans various artistic pursuits. After completing a four-year boatbuilding apprenticeship in 1980, Tony honed his skills as a shipwright specializing in restoring and constructing wooden boats. Collaborating with companies and clients along the West Coast, Tony showcased his expertise and craftsmanship.
Beyond boatbuilding, Tony delved into the realms of commercial illustration and artistry. His captivating pieces graced the pages of magazines and captivated clients in Vancouver. Notably, in 1989, Tony embarked on an impactful project, illustrating a book for the United Nations in collaboration with the FAO. Translated into multiple languages and distributed worldwide, the book solidified Tony's influence as an artist.
Sharing his knowledge brought Tony great joy. He contributed insightful articles to various publications, delivered lectures to diverse groups, and offered consultation on boat interior design and construction. In 1999, Tony left Vancouver and joined the Silva Bay Shipyard School on Gabriola Island as an instructor. By 2003, he became the head instructor, teaching traditional boatbuilding and ship cabinetry/joinery.
In 2005, Tony embraced a new chapter in his career. He now works independently as an artist, writer, part-time teacher, custom woodworker, and boatbuilder. His home shop, nestled among the trees on Gabriola Island, serves as a sanctuary for his creative endeavors. Tony's multifaceted career reflects his unwavering dedication to his craft and his relentless pursuit of artistic expression.
www.tonygroveartist.com
IG: tony_grove_artist
tonygrove@live.com
Tony Grove
By Fleur Sinclair
The Hearth Gallery welcomes painter and shipwright Tony Grove as he showcases his newest exhibition, From Plank to Palette (August 6th - 25th). Grove expands on previous themes of history, memory and storytelling using boats as a vessel for narrative.
To Grove wooden boats are functional sculptures that bridge art and science. As both an artist and a boatbuilder, he relies on first hand knowledge, being able to study the boat directly, to see and feel the form, and the inherent different shapes that give each one a unique character. This craftsmanship and knowledge is reflected in his works as each one has a boat that follows the shape and architecture of a real vessel. Reflecting the years of history embedded in each of the boats.
With creativity and artistic licence Grove expands his boats’ worlds filling his backgrounds with blurring and shifting lines with dreamlike colour. These scenes evoke memory, movement, and the passage of time. By deliberately excluding human figures, he invites viewers to focus on the vessels themselves, finding depth in their stillness and presence, and listening to the quiet, contemplative stories they carry.
From Plank to Palette invites viewers to slow down, breathe and consider the quiet stories that rest in the objects we overlook.
Join us at the Hearth Gallery for the artist pARTy, Saturday August 9th, 6 - 8pm, for your chance to have a drink, meet the artist and experience history through the art of the vessel.