Lynn Capling and her husband are amateur astronomers.
Capling has enjoyed watching the stars ever since she was a child. “As a kid,” says Capling, “I used to sleep outside and watch the sky go by.”
Now, Capling, a retired teacher from William’s Lake, paints skyscapes and planets. She paints the view out of her telescope, re-imagines pictures from the Hubble telescope, and even applies her own knowledge of astronomy to come up with more whimsical images.
In one, she imagines what the earth would look like if it rotated the same way as the moon. One side of an island is bathed in light, the plants leaning in. The other side is colder and darker, with little plant life.
In another, she takes a step further into whimsy. At first glance it’s a full moon hovering over a peaceful horizon with a flock of geese flying past. On second glance, the geese are space ships and nestled in the trees is a little green alien.
This one Capling is especially fond of. “I get an idea, and sometimes the humour and being able to share humour helps me finish it,” says Capling. She says that other paintings of a similar size take about the same amount of time, but sometimes it’s easier to finish the ones with a little humour in them.
Capling has also painted several depictions of the moon, other planets, and the northern lights. Galileo also frequents her work.
She says Galileo built himself a telescope and believed that he was the first to see the craters in the moon. One of Capling’s paintings features two moons: one is larger and shows the craters of the moon as she sees them through her own telescope, while the other is smaller, a rendition of Galileo’s own drawing of the moon.
Some of her paintings have writing on them, referencing Galileo’s work, while another features a red giant, our own sun billions of years from now, with Galileo’s family crest, a ladder, coming out of it.
“Through my artwork,” says Capling, “I want to try and show the awesomeness, the enjoyment, the—space is just amazing.”
Capling is currently running a show out of the Quesnel Art Gallery. Her show, Looking Up: Interpretations of the Night Sky, is running from June 22 to July 20, 2018.
heather.norman@quesnelobserver.com
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