AN ART EXHIBITION CELEBRATING OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, IN ASSOCIATION WITH SUSTAINABLE FINANCE WEEK.
Victor Hugo and Pierre-Auguste Renoir both had deep connections to Guernsey, and the natural beauty of the island inspired both artists. During his 14-year exile in Guernsey from France, Victor Hugo wrote many masterpieces, including the famous Les Misérables and Toilers of the Sea, which is set in the island. In 1883, French Impressionist painter Renoir spent several weeks in Guernsey and painted some 15 pictures of the island, mostly in and around the bay of Moulin Huet.
Guernsey Sustainable Finance Week is inspired by the same natural environment, and how finance can invest in protecting nature and financing climate solutions. Guernsey Green Finance believes finance professionals can be emboldened to support climate finance by investing in protecting nature and backing climate science.
Creative solutions will be needed to solve the climate crisis, and the finance industry is well placed to develop creative mechanisms for financing climate action. There is a wall of capital that will need to be deployed to protect nature and finance climate solutions, and to create a sustainable world for the future.
The first core day of Sustainable Finance Week, Tuesday 20 September, focused on biodiversity, discussing its role in the race to zero, emerging business models that show the investible and bankable proposition, assessment methodologies for biodiversity gain and trends in reporting, and the role of private wealth and institutional capital in accelerating change Guernsey Green Finance is delighted to present this nature-inspired
exhibition in collaboration with Art for Guernsey as part of Sustainable Finance Week, which provides the opportunity to experience the sustainability agenda and Guernsey’s stunning natural environment through a visual lens, which we hope will encourage and inspire finance
professionals to support climate finance.
MEET OUR ARTISTS
DIMITRI
PERMIAKOV
Guernsey, United Kingdom
Dimitri, or Dima as he is fondly known, was Art for Guernsey’s third artist in residence in 2018. Since then he has returned to the island on multiple occasions, having fallen in love with Guernsey and been embraced by us as one of our own. Dima has a unique way of capturing the essence of what we know, reflecting our island home to us in beautiful and unexpected ways.
OLYMPIA
McEWAN
Guernsey, United Kingdom
Olympia combines her portrait-painting career with her passion for the natural world. Both subjects are a joyful reflection of her love for people and their stories, as well as the beauty of nature and its fragility.
Olympia has had several exhibitions on the island, and during the first week of the Russian war in Ukraine, she set up the initiative Art for Ukraine.
CHARLIE
BUCHANAN
Guernsey, United Kingdom
Charlie’s work, although painterly in size and ambition, is illustrative in its close relationship to stories and their power to conjure other worlds. The large scale of many of the paintings means they work as discrete images weaving their own spell but can also work as part of a narrative. Watercolour and ink provide her images with the lyricism of the ‘happy accident’ as pigments move, swirl, flutter, congeal and grow into an image on the paper.
JAMES
COLMER
Guernsey, United Kingdom
James combines work as a graphic designer, illustrator and artist. The aim in his art is to amplify life in the Channel Islands, to try and experience the nature and emotion of island life and connect deeper with the world around us. With a deep connection to the sea and a passion for capturing its ever-changing moods, his art reflects tranquility, drama and wildness.
EUGEN
GOREAN
Moldova, Romania
Eugen was Art for Guernsey’s first artist in residence in 2016. He paints primarily in watercolour, which he finds not only rich in technique, but also sincere in presentation. His artistic goal is to capture the invisible realities that pervade human experience – the subtle relationship between humans and their environment, the sensitive balance between cliché and reality, the eternal longing for a utopian ideal in the midst of a fragmented and fragmenting world.
BRIDGET
SPINNEY
Guernsey, United Kingdom
Having spent much of her life beside the sea or on the sea, Bridget is obsessed with beaches. Moving to Guernsey, which has some of the strongest tides in the world, the patterns and nature of the intertidal zone have become a fascination. She began using conventional methods of painting the beach views and patterns, then moved to texture paste to try and recreate them in relief. Bridget also prints directly print off the beach, using charcoal powder as it has little or no detriment to the environment.
ENRICHING OUR ISLAND
OUR LEGACY
We have been working in the Bailiwick since 2016, bringing art exhibitions, events and creative activities of the highest standards of delivery and engagement to the community, from early education to care homes and everyone in between. We have reached not just our own community but far beyond our shores too. We always strive to inspire our community, innovate in our delivery, reach significant audiences and support future generations, combining creativity with impact.
