Val Moker wants to capture people and places, getting their complete personality on the canvas. She was at the Sunflower Fine Art Craft Market to showcase her work.
There is a real western influence in her work, with cows, cowboys and horses all getting central focus in different paintings. That comes from growing up in Wroxton, Moker says, as she was inspired by the local rodeos she attended as a young woman.
“The western cowboy is a very unique individual. They don’t like to come off the land, we have very strong cowboy personalities in Saskatchewan and they stay true to their own... They’re real original people, that’s the drawing card to them.”
Outside of the cowboy, Moker often paints people at work. She says that when she finds a model, she needs to get to know them, and someone’s true personality comes out at work.
“I try to get to know them, and try to take their personality into the painting. It’s not just painting pretty pictures.”
Moker also has a focus on nature. She says this is because she wants people to stop and pay close attention to the natural world around them, and doing it through her paintings is one way to get people to pay attention to nature and take the chance to reconnect with it.
The texture of a scene is the what connects Moker’s work, and she says that everything in life has a texture which she wants to enhance.
This is the second time Moker has been at Sunflower, though the first time was 20 years ago, and she says it was a successful weekend showing her work and getting people to think about what she creates. Moker can be found at valmoker.com.
