Branda Avis

Branda Avis is a self-taught illustrator, painter, and mixed-media artisan based in Nelson, BC. Her current practice centres on winter mist — a subject she committed to fully in 2019 — and on the sensation of moving through cold Canadian landscape as the animal she is, moving through space. She works to hold one piece of a scene in sharp focus while letting the peripheral blur away, building images that reward the eye willing to stay put.

Drawing and mark-making have been constant throughout her life; she describes the ability to keep her mind busy, engaged, and happy just by picking up a pen or a brush as her greatest gift. Before returning fully to painting she spent a decade building Cut Threads, a hat brand, and her design sensibility carries the imprint of Selkirk College's Digital Arts and New Media program. A Nelson resident since 2008, Avis is committed to being two feet into the art scene here — teaching kids, making things, and raising her son Ralün.