Esplande Studios Exhibitions

Gay Mitchell

‍As my 50th year Celebration Open Studio Art exhibit, I will present 87 new 8"x 10" colour photographs on metal. This will be my first major Photography Exhibit, a media I am very familiar with in my artistic process, but have not shown as finished artworks.

"There are worlds of wonder within worlds. Images of memory and mystery. They link our times and story when we choose them as significant. Their presence is proof of our life lived - tangible imprints of our being." - Gay Mitchell

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Soheila Siari

Born in Tehran-Iran. She is living in Coquitlam-Vancouver. She has been a resident of the Esplanade Studio in Port Moody since 2020. She finished her Painting certificate program at Emily Carr University in Vancouver in 2025.

She as an artist is interested in exploring and works with different material and medium. Her painting in abstract, portrait, and nature in watercolor, acrylic and Mixed Media explored by contemporary and abstraction artists from 19th century. She has mostly guided by the process and research about material itself. She has a deep passion and curiosity on create abstract painting on large scale. Recently she started to explore the beauty of flow of watery acrylic paint using watercolor technique, with layers on raw canvas and paper. In her recent paintings, “Flourishing the Inner “ - “The World of Rose “ - “After Storm” and “ Charm of Inlet” using acrylic ink and soft body acrylic, she wants to take the viewers to explore and capture beauty of life in nature in vibrant color. Her distinctive personal style also expresses the impacted culture and nature using traditional Iranian pattern in her, Rose and Apple. In all her painting include recent collection she is manipulating the beauty of form in nature beside representing her love of nature.

Representing her thought and intervention into women freedom and their rights around the world can be seen in her; “The Moment of the Flow”. My goal is finding my unique style and share my vision to others in the way that I see things.

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Mary E. Javazm

Photography has been my language for over 30 years. I’ve spent a lifetime behind the lens—not just observing, but connecting. Whether I’m capturing the quiet dignity of a factory worker, the softness of a mother-to-be, or the resilient strength of those living in refugee camps, my work is rooted in real people, real lives, and real stories.

Originally trained at Tehran University with a Bachelor’s in Photography, my early years were spent teaching the craft—at universities and youth art centers—before leading a photography department myself. I’ve worked with both digital and analog formats, but I still find myself drawn to the grain, the texture, and the honesty of film.

After immigrating to Canada and taking time to raise my two sons, I returned to photography with a more personal focus—founding a studio in Port Moody that celebrates families, motherhood, and new life. But the heart of my practice still lies in documenting the unpolished beauty of the human experience.

The portraits I share in this exhibition come from various times and places—some taken in refugee camps, others in public streets or quiet homes. They are not staged. They’re not curated to impress. They exist to witness.

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