Dale Sharp

Biography and Artist Statement

My passion to become an artist was kindled when in my first year of school at Websters Corner, I learned that with the help of a pencil, I could draw cars.  After that, more often than not, I was in trouble for drawing instead of doing school work.  Born on Vancouver Island, I moved to Haney (Maple Ridge) with my grandparents in 1945. 

As a young man, a number of years were spent in a variety of non-art related jobs, and then in 1971, my wife and I moved to Nelson BC where I attended the Kootenay School of Art.  After graduation, several years of experience were gained in the Commercial art field and its’ related trades, then the opportunity arose for me to combine freelance commercial art with the compulsion to devote more time to fine art.     

Having spent many years traveling throughout the Fraser Valley, I have become keenly aware of how our immovable cultural heritage (scenes of old derelict farm machinery, trucks, tractors, barns & out buildings etc.) were rapidly being replaced thru the necessity of urban expansion by way of housing complexes & mega shopping centers which require massive areas of acreage, plus parking space as well.  As we hurry along the road, we see but seldom get the time to stop and enjoy these disappearing scenes, so I am capturing through various mediums, some of those picturesque flashes that remain in our traveling memories, presenting them in an on-going series of works called “This Vanishing Fraser Valley”.

A few local works include the Ruskin and Ritchies general stores, Hoffman and Son machine shop in Pitt Meadows, the Jackson barn / Jackson house in Albion, and the Websters Corner United church.  The original of the Ritchies General store was presented as a gift to the Honorable Lt. Governor David Lam by the Pitt Meadows Rotary Club.   

Dale joined FLAG Spring 2010.

A Note of Harmony

Barn Near Deroche