Aiden de Vin is a fourth year BFA student and painter at UBC Okanagan. Originally from Vernon, de Vin is in her final semester of studies. Her main form of expression is painting.
De Vin cites a second-year course as the moment she started to fall in love with painting: “I’ve always enjoyed painting in high school. But then in my second year I took a painting course and I learned a lot about colour and the way that colours can vibrate against each other. I fell in love with it then.”
Most of de Vin’s work is done with acrylic paints. The work encompasses memories, emotions and nostalgia: “I’m thinking a lot about home and domestic life; about the ways that memories have emotions attached to them. They can linger in a space even after the moment has passed. That’s where a lot of my imagery comes from.”
Earlier on, de Vin’s first inspirations came from American painter Heather Day. As her work continues to evolve, however, de Vin cites Susan Lichtman and David Hockney as two major sources of inspiration to her practice.
De Vin’s process when creating work involves starting with a base sketch: “Often it starts with thinking about the architectural space that I’m working within. I do sketches of my childhood home, where I’m living, etc. I’ll take lines and images from those sketches for my paintings. There’s a lot of editing, I’ll create a space, make marks in it, and then I’ll add more spatial planes on top of that. It’s a lot of adding and taking things away. Some marks I plan out, some marks I’ll make in the moment.”
De Vin is also exploring photography as a resource for her painting: “I’m taking a photography course and I really love taking 35mm film photographs. That’s what got me into taking photos. I enjoy documentary-style; I did a project last year titled Girlhood, looking at adolescence and growing up. I’ve been taking a lot of architectural photographs and thinking about the spaces that I’m existing in. It’s exploring similar themes as my paintings, but in a different way. I’ve used a lot of the photos I’ve taken as inspirations for my paintings.”
After graduating, de Vin plans to stay in Kelowna to continue her practice. She is considering applying for residencies and possibly an MFA program in the future. More of Aiden de Vin’s work can be found on her website, Facebook, and Instagram.
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