| Hello VSC members Sadly, we lost Ray Goldsworthy last month. Club members provided me with an outpouring of heartfelt expressions of sympathy to his family. I sent all your comments to Ray’s daughter Rachel, and here is note I recently received from her.
Dear Larry,
I received your beautiful letter and the lovely notes from other Sketch Club members. Thank you all! I am so happy to read the tributes to Dad, and the sweet memories you all have of him, and he would be delighted too, I know. One of his treasured possessions was the VSC honorary membership-- he stood the certificate and description up on his kitchen table so he could see them every time he sat down with his bowl of cereal or cottage cheese. In fact, it's still there and my sister and I see it whenever we go in.
Dad and my husband and I used to get together on Sunday evenings for what we called our salon-- a glass of wine or cup of tea, and a chat about the doings of the previous week and plans for the next (and generally putting the world to rights). Dad was always full of stories about the latest doings at the Sketch Club, and spoke so highly of you, Christine, John Lover, Victor's irreverence, and just how much he enjoyed your company. I hope you will send me the newsletter* and I'll be glad to hear from you and the other members at any time, always. Thank you so much for your kindness to me now, and to Dad always.
Rachel *Ed's note -- a copy was, indeed, forwarded to Rachel
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Hi all!
I hope you are all enjoying the winter break.
Many thanks to our president Larry Gollner for his encouragement and work to keep the VSC active during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to convenors Rand Harrison, Avis Rasmussen, Vicki Turner and Ann Nolte for their activity ideas. Thanks also to Amy Nohales-Kezes for setting up and hosting Zoom, and kudos to everyone for their enthusiastic participation both outdoors and indoors during this extraordinary year, and to Val Lawton for posting photos of our weekly activities in the monthly newsletter.
Upcoming
Jan 5/2021- “My Holiday Project’ This is your opportunity to spend some time working on your own project. Choose your own subject and Show/Share it with us on Jan 5th via Zoom at 1pm.
2021 Winter Schedule( subject to changes)
Location: Indoor-at-home
Time : 1 - 3 pm Tuesdays via Zoom
Activities: TBA
Dates:
January 5, 12, 19* 26 ( * Perspective Workshop with Val Lawton on Jan 19th)
February 2, 9, 16, 23
March 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
April 13 Critique with Andy Wooldridge
April 20 AGM
Ongoing:
Art Appreciation:
Emily Carr at the Royal BC Museum (ends Jan 24, 2021) highly recommended, great show!
VSC will give a partial refund of $6.00. Please retain your ticket receipt and tender to Pat Hindmarch Watson in December of 2020. ( senior tickets $14.95, adults $22.95)
All the best for the season and the coming year.
Happy Painting and Happy Holidays!
Cheers,
Nirmala Greenwell
Program Director
Still life and model convenors: Ann Nolte and Vicki Turner
ZOOM convenor: Amy Nohales Kezes |
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Art Connections is taking a Christmas break, and will pick up where it left off in mid-January. In the meantime, please continue to work on those chef d'oeuvres!
To submit, please forward the following to Rand Harrison1) your image in .jpg format (sorry, we can't work with .pdfs)
2) painting details, including title, dimensions, media, date
3) any artist commentary
4) the email address at which you'd like to receive comments
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Scenes from December 1st
Indoor-at-home program |
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We had an excellent turnout for this Zoom session, the last of the year. No doubt we're all hoping to say farewell to the troubles of 2020, and get back to working side-by-side at the Winsor Park Pavilion!
Today's subject was all things Christmas... food, Christmas cards, Christmassy scenes, and Christmas gifts. and we had many lovely images forwarded to Amy. See just a few below, by Nirmala, Bonita, John, Rand, Myra and Christine. |
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History Corner
by John Lover |
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As a newspaper delivery boy in 1947, one of the addresses on 11-year old Hugh’s route was 1201 Fort Street, a stately mansion in which two old sisters were spending their declining days. When the last of the sisters passed away, and following the auctioning of household effects, the lady who had long ca red for the sisters invited Hugh and other neighbourhood kids to see inside the house they had long viewed with childlike awe.
Wandering through the empty rooms, Hugh discovered some turn-of-the-century newspapers and a battered leather-bound old book containing seeds and plants in a cupboard. He was told that he could keep the tome.
This Italianate house-- known as Pentrelew-- had, in fact, had been the home of the distinguished Crease family since 1875. The widowed Lady Sarah Crease (pictured below left), a talented artist, and her daughter Josephine had been charter members of the Island Arts Club at its foundation in 1909. Together with Sarah’s other artistic children-- Lindley, who died in 1940, and Susan -- the family provided a consistent backbone to the organization. Their home became a popular venue for the meeting of artists. The loss of Josephine and Susan in 1947 marked the end of an era.
The former paperbo y was Hugh Curtis, and was destined to make his own claim to fame. After graduation and an award-winning career in radio, he entered political life with the Saanich Council in 1972, subsequently becoming mayor and first chairman of the Capital Regional District. He moved into provincial politics and held several provincial cabinet portfolios, including the finance ministry in Premier Bill Bennett’s government.
Years later, in 1998, when Hugh was cleaning out his own collections, he came across the battered old souvenir from Pentrelew. He contacted the Royal BC Museum about his find, and was referred to the Provincial Museum of Alberta where a chord was struck.
The story dates back to 1857, when a scientific survey of an alleged drought-ridden area of the prairies was undertaken, financed by the British government. Known as the Palliser Expedition, this three-year study collected information on plants, animals, weather and other factors which could determine the prospects for agriculture in that environment.
Featured heavily in the final report was the work of well-known botanist Eugene Bourgeau whose task was to collect seeds and plants for the Kew Gardens research centre in London. Bourgeau presented his own record of this work, kept in a leather-bound book, to colleague John Lindley, a British professor of botany and secretary of the Royal Botanical Society. In turn, Lindley passed the book to his artistic daughter Sarah, who had provided illustrations for his own published works. Sarah went on to marry Henry Pellew Crease, and took the Bourgeau book to Canada when she moved there to join her husband, who would embark on a successful law career in British Columbia and eventually earn a knighthood.
To cap off the saga, in 1998, the former newspaper kid (pictured below) was flown to Edmonton, court esy of the Alberta Museum, to present the unique and much-travelled botanical collection to the Alberta minister of community development. The Bourgeau book had effectively returned home as the source of its collection had been in an area of Alberta and Saskatchewan, which became known as the “Palliser Triangle.”
And to the Alberta Museum, the book was a treasure. |
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| These images were taken during the Spanish Flu pandemic which lasted from February 1918 to April 1920, spread over four successive waves. One of the deadliest pandemics in human history, over 500 million people were infected. |
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Beach Acres, Parksville, is the venue for 2021, September 7-14, 2021. There are lots of painting sites in and around Parksville and Qualicum Beach.
For more information, please go to the website at www.beachacresresort.com. If you are interested in joining us, please make your booking ASAP.
Guest Services and Sales, call 1-800-663-7309 |
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Forward your news and relevant pictures or links to the newsletter editor. |
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