Expressive arts combine the visual arts, movement, drama, music, quilting, writing and other creative processes to foster deep personal growth and community development. By integrating the various arts methods, we gain access to our inner resources for healing, clarity, illumination and creativity. Expressive Arts can also lead to an increased awareness of a spiritual nature. 

Expressive Arts embrace six basic tenets:

1. All people have an innate ability to be creative. 
2. The creative process is healing. 
3. Personal growth and increased awareness are achieved through self-understanding and insight. 
4. The expressive arts lead us into the unconscious allowing us to discover new aspects of ourselves.
5. Talking and writing about the new aspects we discover allow us to integrate them in our daily life.
6. As we journey inward for self-discovery, we also discover our connection to the world around us.

James Hayes Fine Art at Sorrento Centre!

An enchanting set of circumstances

An unanticipated partnership has developed with local artist, Centre neighbour, and community gardener James (Jim) Hayes. We first met Jim through the Blind Bay Painters and paths crossed again when the Centre opened the Community Garden this spring. As a result of Jim’s recent retirement, he decided to follow his passion by offering more lessons and chose the Centre’s upper Spes Bona space (previously the library) for his weekly classes.

That is exciting in and of itself! But here’s where it gets really interesting. Jim is an accomplished and prolific painter. He has accumulated a massive amount of work. His subject matter is varied, from trees to fish, abstract mixed media to realistic oils and everything in between. His art features a tension between light and dark and draws the viewer in to make his or her own conclusions.

Sorrento Retreat and Conference Centre has walls, lots of bare walls. You can see where we are going with this! How exciting to have Jim’s amazing works of art hanging in many of our public spaces and in some of our suites and apartments. While Sorrento Centre has always been a supporter of all kinds of arts, this collaboration supports our new 2025 theme: Enchantment! The spaces where Jim’s works hang have been magically transformed into places for people to pause and revel in the beauty, the mystery and the story.

Fall and winter visitors to the Centre will get a sneak peek. And just because you asked, yes, the artwork is for sale and Jim has generously offered to donate 20% of sales to the Centre. (Or you can commission Jim to create something uniquely yours.) We are very excited about this new partnership and know our guests will enjoy Jim’s amazing art!

Artist’s Statement

I try to paint with a sense of grounded humility, taking in deeply and respectfully, the mysteries that stand before me. While hiking in the forest I attempt to capture in my work, a conversation between light and darkness, while holding both in balance, their fragility and delicateness. It is in this attempt at balance that I curiously look for nature’s best kept secrets. This then becomes a journey calling me forward! I have painted many years from this perspective, while I still find myself standing and feeling very small at the feet of creation. My paintings have found homes in many parts of the world, hanging in private and corporate collections. I live with my wife and two dogs in a beautiful and quaint village in the Shuswap, Sorrento, B.C. I am surrounded and blessed by its inspiration at every turn.

To view all Jim’s fine artworks visit www.jameshayesgallery.blogspot.com

Given Sorrento Retreat and Conference Centre is a place of transformation for learning, healing, and belonging, not to mention one of great natural beauty, supporting the Expressive Arts is an obvious strategy and is in keeping with our vision, mission, and values. Whether it is our art programming or our support, by way of generous hospitality, of other groups, we are committed to providing opportunities that nourish body, mind, soul, and spirit.