Victoria Sketch Club News
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It's official! HH Lieutenant Governor Janet Austin is now an Honorary Member of the Victoria Sketch Club, officially accepted in this letter, dated January 15, 2020.
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February 2020
Time: 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm
Location: Windsor Park Pavilion
Feb 4 Model character group, A Bridge Foursome (Liz Milton and friends)
Feb 11 Bring Your Own, member demo on glazing, pouring and varnishing in acrylic and oil, and watercolour techniques
Feb 18 Nude male model (Keith)
Feb 25 Old Pharmacy Bottles ; final show prep review ; framing and hardware guides and checks ; frame swap
Thank you!
Nirmala Greenwell, Program Director
Indoor convenors: Ruth Beninger, Joan Head, Niramon Prudatron and Vicki Turner
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Scenes from January 7 workshop
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| Many thanks to Avis Rasmussen for sharing her knowledge of relief printing making in this wonderful demo and workshop! And thanks to very knowledgeable helper, Rand Harrison. |
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SNOWDAY!
A heavy snowfall in Victoria (and much of Canada) meant VSC members had to find something at home to sketch. |
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| This week was all about black and white. Members learned about Nōtan, a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark elements when placed adjacent to one another. |
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A hearty thanks to Victor Lotto and his trusty assistants in helping to raise funds for the upcoming club show. The final tally wasn't available at the time of publishing, but it was over $1000, and VSC thanks all members who brought and bought items!
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| Steve Dickerson of the Victoria College of Art was also on hand today to critique members' works and provided some wonderful tips. |
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History Corner
by John Lover
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The establishment of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in 1951 was the culmination of a long and frustrating struggle for over almost half a century in which our predecessors in the Island Arts and Crafts Society, and later the Victoria Sketch Club, played a vital role. For a capital city, Victoria was painfully slow to mark its own cultural presence in the form of an art gallery. The need for such an institution had been implicit in the stated objectives of the Society, and as early as 1911, the Provincial Government had made a firm promise to provide for a permanent art gallery, with a view to “fostering the artistic spirit in the City and in the Province.” In the event, it was left to the efforts of the Society’s Margaret Kitto to pursue the cause, and persuade the Canadian Pacific Railway to provide such a gallery as an attachment to the Crystal Garden in 1925. However, support for this venture was deemed to be a Society rather than a civic responsibility, and sadly, due to a reported lack of public interest and the inability to finance it, this facility was short-lived. Opening the annual exhibition of 1930, B.C. Premier S. F. Tolmie mentioned the need to secure a permanent home and gallery for Victoria. However, the hollowness of such sentiments unmatched by any positive assistance were felt even more keenly here when in 1931 Vancouver acquired an art gallery to add to its art school. In 1932, a frustrated Emily Carr offered her home as a public gallery, but her pleas to government to provide financial support for the venture fell on deaf ears. Likewise in 1938 a proposal from prominent artist Kathleen Maltwood to build a small public gallery, contingent upon City funding for its upkeep, was rejected. Victoria was left to wait until 1946 for any further progress on this score. In that year a group  of sponsors, mobilized by Mark Kearly, son of an English earl, and Lawren Harris, and including Society members Ina Uhthoff, William Menelaws and Isabel Hobbs, succeeded in establishing the “Little Centre,” a small but welcome public gallery in Yates Street. Another who steered the way to this achievement was Sara Spenser of the well-known Victoria retail family, whose 1889 mansion in Moss Street, after the “holding operation” of the Little Centre, was eventually to become the home of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in 1951. Ironically this was the year of the demise of the old Society which had long pursued this goal in the teeth of civic indifference,
 With a site now secured, the newly established Gallery Board, on the recommendation of Ina Uhthoff, hired Colin Graham, a Cambridge and Berkeley educated Canadian working as an art educator in San Francisco, as its first Director. This proved to be an inspirational choice. During his tenure, 1951-'73, through exhibition, education and collection programs, he was able to enliven the rather static Victoria cultural scene by embracing modern art, and thence proceeding to lay the foundation for the gallery which has played such a key role in the art life of this community.
Graham lo  oked kindly at the Sketch Club, the surviving and by now flourishing component of the former Society, and in 1956 suggested the insertion of the word “Victoria,” so gifting us our present title. He remained a good friend of our Club, and even in his declining years gave invaluable encouragement to our Centennial Year celebrations, and contributed an elegant forward to our 2008 history book. Colin Graham died in Victoria in 2010 at the age of 94.
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| This year's invitation poster! |
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| Big thanks to John Ness for producing digital copies of our poster, bookmarks and invitation, and to Bonny and Rand for curating and organizing these beautiful advertising tools. |
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Art Show Details
March 17 - 22, 2020
Members, you have two months to produce paintings for the 2020 Show. February 18, 2020 is the deadline to submit the form indicating which option you choose, and the size, medium, price, title, etc., of the paintings you wish to submit.
TIMELINE
March 17 - 22 (GNS), 1701 Beach Drive
Show times:
Wed - Saturday: 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
(3 shifts of 10 am -1 pm, 1 pm - 4 pm , 4 pm - 7 pm)
Sunday, March 22: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Friday, March 13: delivery / set-up of metal stands / wooden screens, etc. (after-school hours)
Monday, March 16: painting intake
Tuesday March 17, 7:00 pm: Opening Night! Members arrive 6:30 PM with refreshments and name tag
Tuesday, March 17 to Sunday, March 22: SHOW TIME! (see daily show times above)
Sunday, March 22, from 5 PM: members pick up paintings / metal stands
Sunday, March 22 (post-5 PM); and Monday, March 23 (till 8:30 AM): show breakdown
Sunday March 22, 4 pm: Show closes. Buyers pick up paintings between 4:00-5:00 PM.
March 22, 6:00 PM: Party for members and guests at the Lawn Bowling Club, Carnarvon Park (sign-up sheet to follow).
ARTIST LIST OF PAINTINGS, deadline February 18, 2020. Please indicate which option (see below)/medium/price/title/painting sizes you choose. Paintings must be originals, your own work, not done in a workshop or class, not shown at any of our previous shows, and must be recent (recent-5 yrs.). ONE painting may be NFS (not for sale). If you wish to have someone else deliver and/or collect your paintings, please indicate as such on Artist List of Paintings and let Christine Gollner know.
PAINTING SUBMISSIONS
Members may choose one of the following 3 options when submitting paintings;
Option 1: You may submit up to 2 paintings of the following sizes or smaller:
1 Large painting, MAXIMUM size 32 x 42 inches (including frame) and
1 Medium painting, MAXIMUM size 26 x 26 inches (including frame)
Option 2: You may submit up to 3 paintings of the following sizes or smaller
2 Medium paintings, MAXIMUM size 26 x 26 inches (including frame) and
1 Small painting, MAXIMUM size 14 x 15 inches (including frame)
Option 3: You may submit up to 4 paintings of the following sizes or smaller
1 Medium size painting, MAXIMUM size 26 x 26 inches (including frame) and
3 Small size paintings, MAXIMUM size 14 x 15 inches (including frame)
*NOTE Acrylic/oil painting/mixed media—canvasses of minimum 1 ½ inches depth do not require a frame.
COMMITTEES
Liaison GNS/parking/lighting/Speaker/screens/stands: Larry
Layout Gym: Ray
Poster/Bookmarks: Bonny, Rand
Intake: Christine
Intake Control: Pam
Quality Control: Rand, Peter M
Demos: Virginia
Sketches, Bios: Pat
Labels/write-up and post-show party: Terry
Refreshments Opening Night: Joan, Myra, Amy, Ni
History/Memorial; John, Christine
‘Square’: Sharon W, Maureen
Daily updates: Sharon W
Advertising: Janice, Val, Maureen
Sales desk/Sitters schedule/door prizes: Agnes
Hanging: Show Committee (Larry, Christine, Ray, Rand and Agnes)
Participating in and volunteering during Show: ALL—this is YOUR Show!
A BIG Thank-You to those members who have already volunteered. We need everyone’s help! Also, thank you to those who are willing to let us borrow their metal stands.
OTHER NOTES
- VSC takes 15% commission, PST is 7%, credit card 3%---include all when calculating a price.
- There will be a folder with Members’ Sketches---maximum size 11” x 14”.
- There will be a binder with Members’ BIOs —1 page (8 ½ “x 11”). One-sided, may include pictures.
- You may put your (art) business card in the rack provided.
- ADVERTISING: the best way is by word of mouth—to family, friends, neighbors, doctor, dentist, chiropractor, grocery store, art store, etc. Use the invitations (email only), bookmarks and posters.
- (NEW) MEMBERS: please provide your BIO, a Sketch (optional); your art business card (optional); wear VSC NAME TAG during the Show, please VOLUNTEER AS SITTER/HELPER or doing a DEMO during the Show.
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Imagine Artworks Collective
See the work of VSC artists Anne Bowen, Sharon Wareing and Maureen Ness at the ongoing group art show at the Marriott Delta Ocean Pointe Spa, 100 Harbour Road. Go here for details. |
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Maureen Ness -- Solo Art Show of Giclees on Canvas
The Courtyard Cafe - Hotel Grand Pacific
463 Belleville St, Victoria
January 3, 2020 to February 27, 2020 |
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Paint Out 2020 isn't so far away!
This year's Paint Out is at Cusheon Lake Resort on Salt Spring island. |
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Quotes to Inspire
compiled by Virginia Hutzuliak
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“Every artist dips his brush into his own soul, and paints his own nature into his own pictures.“
-- Henry Ward Beecher
“Every artist dips her brush into her own soul, and paints her own nature into her own pictures.“
-- updated by VH
“'Average' is everywhere. It will be destined for dust if it does not have soul... something that 'speaks'. Heart. Authenticity.”
-- Anonymous
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Thoughts from Rand
considered and presented here by Rand Harrison
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"Be a storyteller with your art, not a reporter”
“Don’t just paint what you see; paint how you saw it”
“A comfort zone is seldom a growth zone”
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Do you have news you'd like to share? Are you an artist in residence or participating in a show or workshop? Please forward your news, along with any relevant pictures,
to the newsletter editor. |
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