Artwork and Design
The physical dimensions of the Salt Spring Dollar are identical to the Canadian Dollar (length, width and thickness), and are printed on a durable, high quality paper. This allows a banknote counting machine to be used for counting and bundling.
The currency was designed by island artist Warren Langley. His mixed media elements comprised of pen and ink, oil paints and digitized computer art were merged together with the technical skills of project manager and local artist/designer Pat Walker.
Working with basic elements supplied by SS IMF Directors Bob McGinn and Eric Booth, the design team has created a complex and visually stunning currency, rivaling the artistry of money designers worldwide. Twenty-five separate layers, including anti-counterfeiting techniques, combine to present bills that are simultaneously complex, nostalgic, artistic and timely.
The green ones and the brown twos, along with historical portraits create a feeling of nostalgia and conjure up the good old days when money looked like real money.
With the addition of the $$10's, $$20's, $$50's and $$100's we elevated Salt Spring Dollars to state-of-the-art anti-counterfeiting technology supplied by Adlertech International, Toronto.
You can view samples of all the bills on our specimens page.
Salt Spring Artists Who Contributed to the Currency Designs
Warren Langley
Co-designer (with Pat Walker) of the whole series of bills
Contributed his paintings "Beached" and "Captain's Passage" for the backs of the $$2.00 and $$5.00 bills
Warren Langley's website: warrenlangley.com
Langley's painting "Beached" featured on the Salt Spring $$2.00 bill
Langley's painting "Captain's Passage", oils on cedar, featured on the Salt Spring $$5.00 bill
Making an art out of making residential and commercial cedar signs is the hallmark of Warren Langley, whose work graces almost every road on his home island of Salt Spring.
His distinctive hand crafted cedar signs are everywhere; hanging throughout the island's pretty seaside villages or posted on the winding country roads. On this piece of paradise, a Warren Langley sign is de rigueur for the many art galleries and artists, for businesses and private residences alike.
For two decades, Warren Langley has hand crafted cedar signs for an increasingly international clientele. Many clients have placed orders after visiting the Gulf Islands and seeing Langley's work first hand or have discovered the artist through one of the many articles written about his work.
A Warren Langley sign is much more than lettering. An artist since childhood, Langley brings a special genius to the creation of each sign, melding sandblasting, carving and painting into a three-dimensional work of art.
Pat Walker, Illustrator
Co-designer (with Warren Langley) of the whole series of bills.
Pat Walker sailed to Salt Spring Island from Vancouver one fine summer day in 1988 on her 26-foot sloop. She was working in Vancouver as an illustrator and graphic designer in a business she started in 1985. Pat met Warren Langley while working on a commissioned sign and began contract work with his sign business until she moved her business to the island in 1990 where her boat had been since that summer day two years before. Pay works in her studio cottage on Ganges Harbour.
Jill Louise Campbell
Contributed her painting "Salt Spring Island Sheep" for the back of the $$10.00 bill
Jill Louise Campbell's website: web.mac.com/duartcampbell
Campbell's painting "Salt Spring Island Sheep" featured on the Salt Spring $$10.00 bill
Jill Louise Campbell grew up in Montreal, Quebec where she studied art prior to attending the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. Together with her family, Jill lived for a year in the Provence region of southern France. Much of this time was spent wandering the French countryside sketching and immersing herself in the engaging country of France. Upon their return to Canada in 1991 the Campbell family settled on Salt Spring Island.
While painting in her oceanfront studio, Jill envelops herself in all that embraces her in joy: photographs, her many journals, art books and music that fills her spirit in joyfull wholeness. This is where the magic begins, "watercolour is only a medium through which a rich story can evolve. A freedom of expression happens for me that feels joyous and in harmony with a greater force."
Carol Haigh
Contributed her painting "A Break in the Fog" for the back of the $$20.00 bill
Haigh's painting "A Break in the Fog" featured on the Salt Spring $$20.00 bill
Carol Haigh was born in the Lincolnshire, England on Feb. 24, 1953. In 1995 her family immigrated to Canada and settled on Salt Spring Island.
At age of 16 Carol left school to sail through the Pacific Islands with her parents and sisters on-board their 40 ft. trimaran "Tryste II". From 1970 to 1974 she lived and worked in New Zealand, Australia and England before returning to Salt Spring.
Carol is a self-taught painter. During the last twenty years, she has worked with various mediums and techniques producing paintings and silkscreen prints which can now be found in private collections in New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, Japan and North America.
Carol lives with her family at Southey Point, Salt Spring Island.
Carol Evans
Contributed her painting "Feeding the Swans" for the back of the $$50.00 bill
Carol Evans' website: carolevans.com
Evans' painting "Feeding the Swans" featured on the Salt Spring $$50.00 bill
This celebrated watercolour artist takes great pleasure in painting the natural beauty of the West Coast of Canada and the Pacific Northwest, and she captures every nuance of both its power and grace in her paintings. Many of Carol Evans watercolours portray British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest on the beautiful and rugged pacific shores on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Her ability to create intensity of colour in the watercolor medium and her attention to the subtleties of light are trademarks of her increasingly popular work.
The art of Carol Evans is expressed through the medium of her exquisitely detailed watercolours. "When the sun highlights a scene, often a fairly ordinary one, it catches my attention. A common sight, even a relatively mundane setting will become illumined and bright. It practically sings with radiance and everything becomes extraordinarily beautiful. I always find it an uplifting moment when that happens and it is one of my favourite subjects for painting - not just the scene itself, but how the sunlight plays in the scene."
Since 1981 Carol has held 15 very successful one-woman exhibitions in a variety of places; Vancouver, Salt Spring Island, Gabriola Island and Naniamo. She was invited to participate in a group exhibition by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, "The Real West Coast" where she was honoured to have her paintings shown along side the work of fellow west coast artists.
She is currently working on a new collection of paintings for an upcoming exhibition project which has caught her interest and enthusiasm.
Robert Bateman
Contributed his painting "Thinking Like a Mountain" for the back of the $$100.00 bill
Robert Bateman's website: batemanideas.com
Bateman's painting "Thinking Like a Mountain" featured on the Salt Spring $$100.00 bill
Born in Toronto, Robert Bateman has been a keen artist and naturalist from his early days. He has always painted wildlife and nature, beginning with a representational style, moving through impressionism and cubism to abstract expressionism. In his early thirties he moved back to realism as a more suitable way to express the particularity of the planet. It is this style that has made him one of the foremost artists depicting the world of nature.
In the '70s and early '80s, Bateman's work began to receive critical acclaim and to attract an enormous following. His work is in many public and private collections and several art museums. He was commissioned by the Governor-General of Canada to create a painting as the wedding gift for HRH The Prince Charles from the people of Canada. His work is also represented in the collection of HRH The Prince Philip, the late Princess Grace of Monaco and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Bateman has had many one-man museum shows throughout North America, including an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; most of these shows have drawn record-breaking crowds. His honors, awards and honorary doctorates are numerous; he was made Officer of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian award. He was awarded the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement. He has also been the subject of three films and several video productions. Three books of his art, The Art of Robert Bateman, The World of Robert Bateman, and Robert Bateman: An Artist in Nature, have made publishing history. A fourth book of his art, Robert Bateman: Natural Worlds, focuses on the importance of natural and cultural heritage. Safari, an illustrated book for young readers, contains firsthand accounts and interesting facts about African wildlife. The book, Thinking Like a Mountain, details Bateman's environmental philosophies and observations and includes pencil sketches throughout.
"The real problems facing this planet are not economic or technical, they are philosophical."
— E. F. Schumacher
It is in honor of his contribution to art and conservation that both a public school and a secondary school in Canada have been named after him. With a degree in geography from the University of Toronto, Bateman taught high school for 20 years, including two years in Nigeria. He traveled around the world in a Land Rover in 1957/58, increasing his appreciation of cultural and natural heritage. Since leaving teaching in 1976 to paint full time, he has traveled widely with his wife, Birgit, to many remote natural areas.
Bateman's art reflects his commitment to ecology and preservation. Since the early '60s, he has been an active member of naturalist clubs and other conservation organizations. This involvement has increased in recent years and is now on a global scale. He has become a spokesman for many environmental and preservation issues and has used his artwork and limited edition prints in fund-raising efforts which have provided millions of dollars for these worthy causes. He says, "I can't conceive of anything being more varied and rich and handsome than the planet Earth. And its crowning beauty is the natural world. I want to soak it up, to understand it as well as I can, and to absorb it. And then I'd like to put it together and express it in my painting. This is the way I want to dedicate my work."
Thomas McPhee
Engraved the master art for the front and back of the $$50 1/2 ounce silver coin
Thomas McPhee's website: mcpheegallery.net
McPhee's design for the $$50.00 coin
The artwork on the 1/2 ounce .999 fine silver $$50 coin is the creation of internationally acclaimed Salt Spring Island gemstone carver Thomas McPhee.
Canadian born sculptor Thomas Richard McPhee studied graphic arts at the Kootney School of Art in 1974-75. In 1976 he went to England to study art in the great museums of London and sold his first collection of gemstone carvings there.
Moving back to Canada in 1977, McPhee settled in Vancouver and opened a small studio and attended the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr) studying bronze casting, welding, clay, and painting. In 1979 he began carving mastodon and mammoth ivory. In 1982 he returned to carving precious and semi precious gemstones.
In the early 1980's he developed his own technique for gem carving and since then has become one of the world's foremost artists in this demanding medium. The gems carved by McPhee range from the relatively common like quartz and agate to the rare and unique, such as emerald and sapphire. As a master of classical realism, McPhee combines both figurative and abstract elements in his work that often involves mythological themes and archetypes. The carvings range from small jewellery sized pieces to larger sculptures.
In 1998, McPhee turned his talent to the exploration of casting glass into finely detailed miniature sculptures. This medium lends itself naturally to McPhee's style of virtuosic detail.
As an artist/sculptor, Thomas Richard McPhee has gained an international reputation for his unique small-scale sculptures. His creations are sold to collectors world wide