The Gallery Tavioni is proudly presenting yet another exhibit at their gallery in Atupa tonight featuring the beautiful Pascale Garnier Cowan and her collection of art which she is excited to showcase and release to hopefully new homes.

Over 50 paintings will be exhibited, all by Garnier Cowan from 6pm onwards. A range of paintings featuring nature, animal, and sea life as well as flowers, embezzled with pearls and beads which highlight her unique and feminine style will be available for the public to view for two weeks after tonight’s exhibition.

Originally from Tahiti with Cook Islands blood, Garnier Cowan lived in Paris for many years with her husband. She shared that initially, she picked up painting and art as a way of therapy for when she was going through cancer in 2011 back in Paris.

“I felt like I needed to express myself through something so I decided to throw colours on canvases and try to stay busy doing other things rather than thinking about what I was affected with,” she said.

She first started with abstract art which allowed her to literally throw paint on a canvas, but then moved on to painting things inspired by nature, animals and sea life, flowers, and birds.

As a child she would always observe nature, so when she became sick, Garnier Cowan said all those things she observed and was taught as a child came back to her and filled her soul with beautiful things to think about.

“I was happy with this because I was filling my mind and soul with beautiful things that would distract me from what I was suffering from.”

She described her painting style as a three-step process made up of drawing, painting, and then the sticking of all the beads and pearls, not to cover the entire thing but to make it her own.

“It’s very intricate and needs a lot of patience. Going into detail like this really helped me to ease the tension and anxiety I was going through.”

Before leaving Paris for Rarotonga with her husband, many of her family and friends asked to buy her art which had accumulated over the years. Unable to let go of all the beautiful pieces that helped her get through her sickness, she brought many of them with her to Rarotonga.

Now, after making a happy and laid-back life on the island she now calls home, Garnier Cowan is ready to release her paintings to make room for fresh inspiration. Three of the paintings she is exhibiting were made here in the Cook Islands with the rest coming from her time in Paris.

“I hope that they will belong to someone else now,” she said.