September 2020 Newsletter

 

September 2020
Contact Information:

Secretary   victoriasketchclub@gmail.com

VSC website   www.victoriasketchclub.ca   
 
Facebook  
 https://www.facebook.com/victoriasketchclub/
Fall 2020 plein airs
Summer may be almost over, but plein airs are not!

We will be continuing with our plein air through the fall season as long as the good weather continues. The schedule will be sent out weekly and it may be subject to changes, due to weather or other considerations.

Thanks to Rand Harrison and Avis Rasmussen for coordinating the summer program, scheduling 14 sites to paint and sketch, and to Val Lawton and Rand for Art Connections (see status update below), which kept members informed, connected and showing 'n' sharing during these strange Covid-19 times.  

Questions? Contact
Avis Rasmussen (avis.rasmussen37@gmail.com)
Rand Harrison (randharr@telus.net)
Art Connections is back!
Speaking of Art Connections... Rand and Val are ready to receive your artwork for the fall issues of our show 'n' share newsletter. If you have something you'd like to share, and receive feedback on, please forward the following to Rand Harrison
 
1) 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 
Scenes from September 1st
Hatley Castle was the site of this week's plein air for VSC members. 

Hatley Castle is a federal heritage building located in Colwood and has been used for Royal Roads University since 1995. Prior to that, it housed the military college of the same name starting in ‘40s. Built in 1906, LG James Dunsmuir bought the property, and commissioned Samuel Maclure to build a 40-room mansion in the Scottish baronial style. 

The Canadian government bought the property in 1939, and at the outbreak of WWII, a federal Crown-in-Council purchased it in 1940 for use as the King's royal residence in the event of an invasion of Britain. Primary options were stately homes in England, but Hatley was the backup site should German troops reached the Midlands. However, as we know, the Royal Family chose to remain in London alongside their fellow Britons.

Scenes from September 10th
EGM 2020
The year's EGM was held in an social-distanced manner in the grounds of our beloved Windsor Park Pavilion. Originally planned for September 8, the event had to be postponed due to smoky skies and reduced air quality.
 
Long-standing member Christine Gollner was presented a with certificate and a bouquet of flowers after being nominated as an Honorary Member.  Christine has been a very active member of VSC for 28 years, having served as president, secretary, show director, programme director and treasurer as well! Thank you, Christine!!
EGM 2020 
Long-standing member Christine Gollner was presented a with certificate and a bouquet of flowers after being nominated as an Honorary Member.  Christine has been a very active member of VSC for 28 years, having served as president, secretary, show director, programme director and treasurer as well! Thank you, Christine!!
Scenes from September 16th
Government House 
First known as Cary Castle when it was built in 1859, this was the residence of the Governor of Vancouver Island at the time of Confederation. Upon BC’s entrance in 1871, it became Government House. A fire destroyed it 28 years later and a second iteration, designed by Francis Rattenbury and Samuel Maclure, was built. This, however, didn’t last terribly long either, as in 1957, the house burned down again. The only surviving piece was the stone porte cochere which the next architects, John Laing & Sons, built around.

Two very brave souls from our club made it out to today's plein air, most opting to stay indoors and out of the wildfire smoke, emanating from our neighbours to the south (not from Government House). 
Scenes from September 22nd
Swan Lake Nature Centre
The Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary is a nature reserve located in Saanich, and includes a lake, marshy lowlands, and the Nature House, as well as part of the summit regions of Christmas Hill. First listed as Swan Lake on a map in 1885, some speculate the area was named for James Gilchrist Swan, American journalist, schoolteacher, lawyer, judge, school superintendent, railroad promoter, natural historian, and ethnographer. The more popular belief, however, is that the name simply refers to the trumpeter swans who liked to visit the lake!
Scenes from September 29th
Cattle Point
Cattle Point is part of the Uplands Park which features two well-used boat ramps, and the Oak Bay Cenotaph which honours the nearly one hundred Oak Bay men and women who died in WWII. The bovine appellation comes from the 50-year period between 1860 to 1910, when cattle were shoved overboard from paddle steamers and told to swim ashore.

Cattle Point is among North America's first natural preserves to be set aside in an urban region, established in the 1940s by the Oak Bay city council.  More recently, Cattle Point was designated an Urban Star Park in 2013 by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, only the second of its kind in the country, and joins a national and global network of Dark-sky preserve. Most preserves are found in remote areas and wilderness that adhere to guidelines to conserve the night sky for astronomical observation, so Cattle Point is indeed special.

About a dozen members came out to sketch and paint under gorgeous, cloud-free skies.
Paint Out! 2020
September 21-28
Though the weather didn't cooperate as nicely as it might have, this year's socially-distanced Paint Out! at Cusheon Lake Resort on Salt Spring Island was a success nonetheless.
History Corner
by John Lover

On August 25th club members enjoyed a pleasant plein air meeting at the lovely home of Geoff Buck and Barbara Hubbard on Beach Drive. With Barbara away on business, Geoff was a welcoming host, and we had the happy choice of working either at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club or Loon Park, as well as among Geoff’s fruit trees in the back garden. 

A report in the Victoria Colonist, May 8th 1928, on a similar event almost a century ago shows how well the traditions of our club have endured:  

The weekly meeting of the Sketch Club of the Island Arts and Crafts was held by invitation in the delightful garden of Mrs. Hugo Beaven, Beach Drive, on Tuesday afternoon. There was a good turn-out of members and Mrs. Beaven received them and showed them the glory of Springtime bloom in this favored spot, leaving them to sketch were they would. The afternoon’s work was shown and criticized, and a very enjoyable time spent in discussion.

Ada Beaven was a daughter of J. D. Pemberton, the first Surveyor-General of the Province, and Arden, the Beaven home, was built by Samuel McClure in 1908 on part of her father’s original estate in South Oak Bay. She thus had a close association with the club as her brother Frederick Pemberton was an IACS Charter member and president, and her sister Sophie already a distinguished artist.  

Ada’s husband, Hugo Beaven, was the son of Robert Beaven, Mayor of Victoria and the fifth premier of the province. 

A man of parts, he was a bank manager, hunter, golfer and a specialist in roses, acting as a judge at flower shows and being responsible for the introduction of many new varieties to the city. His rose garden at Arden, 1176 Beach Drive, was widely known in the area. After his death in 1937, Ada, as a memorial to her husband provided fifty quality specimens to establish the rose garden at Windsor Park.  

In 1939, as a further legacy, she donated a parcel of her estate to the municipality to be used as a native plant garden to preserve indigenous species. At the junction of Margate Street and Beach Drive the garden is still assiduously maintained, although the site of Arden, opposite to the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, is now occupied by the Whitehall Apartments. Well known and respected in the community for her generous support of charities, Ada could be seen cruising in her electric car in the Oak Bay area almost up to the time of her death in 1958.  

It so happened that her sister, Sophie, died the following year, having spent the last years of her life on Beach Drive. Sophie had been a companion of Josephine Crease, Sam McClure and Emily Carr in the local sketching clubs of the early 1900s. Later she became the first Canadian-born artist to receive international recognition after her work in portrait and watercolour landscape painting was exhibited at the London Royal Academy and the Paris Salon. However, after her marriage in 1908, she left Victoria for England where her illustrious painting career sadly petered out due to ill health and family tragedy. 

Sophie lived most of her life in England, but on one of her visits to Victoria she was able to use her Ottawa contacts to help her friend Emily Carr gain access to the national art scene. She finally returned to settle permanently in Oak Bay in 1947.

Members News

A Tidbit of Art from 'Down Under'


Rock art of the Aboriginal Peoples of Australia, well documented over the past several decades, extends back in time on the order of 40,000 years or more.

Without a written language, art was the vehicle to pass on knowledge and stories, but an individual could not paint a story unless it belonged to them through family. In modern times Aboriginal art has taken many forms, with styles varying between groups and regions. One example above: acrylic 'dot art', painted from an aerial perspective as if hovering over the land, shows meeting places, campsites, tracks, and waterholes.

-- submitted by Rand Harrison
VSC Members Sharon Wareing and Val Lawton teamed up to create a kids' colouring, Fun Wild Animals Fact, on behalf of the BC SPCA Wild Animal Rehabilitation Centre (Wild ARC). Generously sponsored by Elite Self Storage, the book includes 14 black and white images of wild animals indigenous to British Columbia. Contact Sharon if you'd like a copy.
Paint Out! 2021
It's already time to plan for next year’s Paint-Out!  

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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