March 7th OPENING RECEPTION, 1-3pm Saturday. Show runs March 3rd - 28th, 2026 at 1729 Comox Ave, Comox, BC .

My painting, “From Other Times” has been selected to be in the Spring Members Showcase. Come and meet me and all the other artists at the Opening Reception.

Spring arrives with light, colour, and a renewed sense of possibility - and at the Pearl Ellis Gallery, it also brings Awakening, the 2026 Spring Members Showcase. The Members Showcase highlights the strength and diversity of the Pearl’s artistic community - from established artists to those exhibiting new work. All artwork is available for purchase, along with a curated selection of locally made art cards.

Jo C Willems will have 3 extraordinary paintings in this exhibition. Click on the Oct 2025 Limitless Exhibition from the link above. This is an International ONLINE Art Exhibit hosted annually by the Federation of Canadian Artists.

Each year, the Federation of Canadian Artists holds this online exhibition, open to International participants. LIMITLESS celebrates boundless creativity where artists transcend conventional norms through diverse mediums and subject matter. This exhibition invites exploration into infinite possibilities, challenging perceptions with ethereal landscapes and evocative forms. The sky is the limit in terms of art, so this show will surely be exceptional! All items in the exhibition are for sale.

Visit their site to check out the full Online exhibition opening Oct 1st!

The Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) is a registered charity founded in 1941 by professional Canadian working artists including Group of Seven luminaries Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, and A.Y. Jackson. It is Canada’s largest National Arts Service organization, with a mission to advance the knowledge and appreciation of art and culture to all Canadians.

I have three paintings accepted into this juried online show with the Federation of Canadian Artists. You can view them online at this link below, and click on the link for the April 2025 Showcase show ://federationgallery.com/artist/bf70/jocwillems

Explore this online-exhibition featuring work from many talented members. A spotlight exclusively for our member artists, we invite creators to unveil their freshest and most exceptional masterpieces.

Jo C Willems will have 5 extraordinary paintings in this exhibition. This is an International ONLINE Art Exhibit hosted annually by the Federation of Canadian Artists.

Each year, the Federation of Canadian Artists holds this online exhibition, open to International participants. LIMITLESS celebrates boundless creativity where artists transcend conventional norms through diverse mediums and subject matter. This exhibition invites exploration into infinite possibilities, challenging perceptions with ethereal landscapes and evocative forms. The sky is the limit in terms of art, so this show will surely be exceptional! All items in the exhibition are for sale.

Visit their site to check out the full Online exhibition opening Oct 1st!

The Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) is a registered charity founded in 1941 by professional Canadian working artists including Group of Seven luminaries Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, and A.Y. Jackson. It is Canada’s largest National Arts Service organization, with a mission to advance the knowledge and appreciation of art and culture to all Canadians.

The Sooke Fine Arts Show provides the opportunity for the finest artists from Vancouver Island and BC’s coastal islands to showcase and sell their work. Jo has a painting entered in this juried show, and also has several paintings, cards, and soapstone carvings in the gift shop.

OPENING NIGHT: July 26, 2024

July 27 – Aug 5, 2024

SEAPARC Recreation Centre, 2168 Phillips Rd, Sooke, BC

For more info and the full show schedule: https://sookefinearts.com/show-2024/

It Just Takes Time is a series of drawings which are the result of my daily meditation. Early every morning I retreat to my studio for an hour or two and pick up a pencil to draw. Each of these large drawings has taken an incredible amount of time. Yet time is irrelevant in the process, for every stroke of my pencil is a timeless moment, only the drawing and the tools in my hand have any significance. To view a video of this solo exhibit, click here.

Private Gallery Member Representation, 2013 - 2020

Feb 2019, Featured wall in gallery based on very large pencil drawings for the exhibit at the Revelstoke Visual Art Centre “It Just Takes Time”.

A pencil is like an extension of my hand; there is nothing between me and the paper. The image flows through me, becomes a reality that only moments before was a blank sheet. It is a selfish moment when I draw, exclusive of all else. The end result is a personal indulgence, to see what I want to see, an aching perfection, yet still a mere shadow of the inspiration. Pencil is so simple, yet evokes all the shades of light. Texture is like knitting, repetitive yet so rich with variation. 2B 4B 6B, my goodness sometimes even 9B! That’s it. And with time, I can stand back and step into a drawing that’s just right.

Stone is another matter, it is about taking away, about finding form within. Carving for me is more about touch than sight. I feel the shape as I pull away the soft rock with small rough tools. It is magical when the hours of sanding reveal the remarkable patterns. of ancient detritus caught within the folds of stone, humbling.

A shared show with Tracy Macfarlane

A slight and unpretentious study in a simple medium, the sketch is an integral part of artistic impression. Pencil, ink, watercolour are often used, and in this case, stone has been used to record visual experience. Soapstone is a very soft material that will leave clear marks when drawn across a dark surface. Exploration of this unique combination of materials by multi media artist Tracy Macfarlane is the foundation of this exhibition.
Similarity and contrasts play between soapstone carvings by Jo C Willems and the large sketches done by Macfarlane. The stone is very sold and heavy, in contrast to the light ethereal quality of the sketches. Yet Willems uses the medium of carving like a sketch to capture a sense of line and form rather than replication. The stone itself very much guides the form. The similarity is in the process of creating these artistic expressions. Carving a form out of the rock is done very quickly without thinking, just feeling the form as it is revealed, in much the same way as a sketch is done quickly, without thinking, to capture the essence of the experience.
Sketch ‘n Stone is about crossing the line between mediums, a sharing of knowledge, to generate a unique synchronicity between two very old forms of expression.

A shared show with Jo C Willems, Barbara Maye, Peter Blackmore, Karen Millard, Kristi Lind, Sheena Bell. Funded by CKCA Art Funding to Communities

An artist leaves a thread that is woven into the fabric of human history, a thread that is picked up by the next generation and carried forward. A Carver's Legacy is about one such thread left by stone carver Pat Wells. Pat's gift to the artists of this show is the freedom to carve and the inspiration to honour the memory of this man who so enriched the world with his creative efforts. The artists, Barbara Maye, Peter Blackmore, Jo C Willems, Kristi Lind, and Karen Millard, range in skills from master carver to total novice. Though their styles vary greatly each of the stones has been touched by Pat’s hand.

A solo exhibit sponsored by a grant from Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance.

Fare Forward is a visual record of my personal journey towards the wisdom that comes with knowing that, “life does not stand still, fare forward dear soul,” as Ira Dilworth wrote to Emily Carr in the later years of that great artist’s life. Those words written so long ago to comfort an aging friend are the inspiration for Fare Forward. Decades spent in the forests have taught me much about the necessity of failure in the success of life. This angst hones sentience in every living moment, the awe of things simple, the sweet joy of a glance. A rock moved, perhaps it rolled down into the trail, or a limb fell from a tree to settle across the path, insignificant yet notable–these are things I like to speak of in my paintings. The passage of time, the synchronicity and disparity of things aging. I use natural images as a language to express my awareness of how I am just one tiny part of an enormous experience. To learn more about Fare Forward, click here.

Smithers Art Gallery, Smithers, BC, August–Sept 2017

Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre, Revelstoke, BC, November 2017

Langham Gallery, Kaslo, BC, Aug-Sept 2018

Fierce Art Project: A group Art Project funded by a Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance (CKCA) Program1 grant. Artists Catherine Craid, Charise Folnovic, Debbie Lowen, Elaine Baird, Jo C Willems, Leah Duperrault, Mari Ozero, Susan Lind and Trish Hartwich held four interaction group exhibits over 4 years. Learn more HERE.

Roots, Stumped Growth, interactive group exhibit, July 2016, Revelstoke Visual Art Centre. Revelstoke, BC

The Columbia, Our View Part 2, group show Fierce Art Project, Revelstoke, BC, May 2018

The Columbia, Our View, group show Fierce Art Project, Invermere, BC Sept 2017

My Creative Space group show, Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre, Revelstoke, BC April 2019

This is a program sponsored by Parks Canada, which provides Canadian Artists with special access to Canadian Parks, and then share their experiences through art. Artists are chosen through a rigorous selection process, choosing artists that inspire an emotional and deeper understanding of Canada’s National Parks. Artists in the Park are featured each year.

Mt Revelstoke Celebration of 100 Years, Revelstoke Visual Art Centre; Nov 2014

Newton Cultural Centre, Surrey BC; 2015

trail through the forest, living and dying, moods and emotions. Journey is about seeking out a visual language to express these things. Journey is about paint, about the illusion created by painting on a flat surface and using this illusion as language. The image, the familiar, things slightly odd, pushed a bit this way or that, movement and flow, repetitive patterns, interruptions and shifts, all become the medium that creates the journey.  To see more on Journey, click here.

Revelstoke Visual Art Centre, Revelstoke, BC. Nov 2014

Art Gallery of Golden, Golden, BC. March 2015