Note from the President
At the VSC 113th Annual Art Show held recently in the GNS Junior School Gym, the member set up a donation box in a Ukrainian motif. Our members and the show visitors donated $2,015 towards the Refugee Safe Haven in Sooke.
Additionally, our members personally have been providing additional support to this wonderful cause, owned and spearheaded by VSC member Sharon Wareing and husband Brian Holowaychuk. Thanks to all that have contributed and please bear in mind the Refugee Safe Haven is scheduled to have one hundred residents starting in late April.
Larry |
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 | | President Larry Gollner presents VSC member Sharon Wareing with a donation cheque for her Refugee Safe Haven located in Sooke. |
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Thank you so much for the donation cheque of $2,015.
It is hard to express enough gratitude for this-- it will go a very long way towards feeding the refugees that are arriving shortly! Also, a very sincere thank you to those that came forward with cash today. Be assured we will put the money towards food for the people.
Thank you again to all of you for your help, money, ideas for projects. It's just awesome, as we cannot do this by ourselves.
If you have any supplies you'd care to donate, we have some lovely ladies who are organizing needed items, and double-checkin g to ensure we don't end up with 6 coffee pots and no coffee mugs. Please contact them if you have any supplies you'd care to donate. Their contact information is:
janandgloria@shaw.ca
Sharon and Brian Holowaychuk (nee Wareing) |
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2022 Summer Outdoor Program
This year’s summer program will be developed in two successive time frames…. May through June, and July through August….with 9 different site visits in each time frame. The program will start May 3 at Cattle Point, and finish August 30 at a site amenable to holding a wind-up picnic. Here's the list for the balance of May...
· May 10 Playfair Park
· May 17 Beaver Lake
· May 24 Finnerty Park (U Vic)
· May 31 Ross Bay Cemetery
An e-mail ‘information package’ for the entire May – June time frame will be sent out by the VSC Secretary in the last week of April, and one-sentence reminders will be sent each week one or two days in advance of each outing.
In general, club members arrive around 10 a.m. and paint/sketch until about noon, after which some gather together to socialize over lunch. Guests artists are welcome, especially if interested in possibly applying for VSC membership in the following Fall or Winter indoor sessions.Rand Harrison Questions? email Rand |
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| VSC member Mary Brackenbury spoke to the membership today on the topic of Landscape Depiction in Canada (c. 1930-2000). Thank you, Mary! |
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| Today we were treated to a critique of our work by Steven Dickerson. Steven is a graduate of Sheridan College and a professional artist and teachers, and has critiqued for the VSC before, always providing useful takeaways for members. |
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 | | In addition to a fun and enlightening Rocky Mountain presentation by Rand Harrison, VSC members got into rock painting, transforming chunks of granite into mini-houses! |
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April 26VSC Annual General Meeting |
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Larry Gollner officially stepped down as president of Victoria Sketch Club at this year's AGM, and we the membership thank you for wonderful service!
We are pleased to welcome our new executive
President: Gillian Rhodes
Vice President: Anne Bowen
Secretary: Amy Nohales-Kezes (until Sept)
Treasure: Michael Pipes
Programme Director: Patricia Hindmarch-Watson
Communications Director: Vicky Turner
Director at Large: Ruth Beninger
Show Director: Under Review |
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 | | The VSC welcomed three new honorary members to the club-- Victor Lotto and Ann Nolte (pictured), and Liz Milton. |
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History Corner
by John Lover |
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Without doubt, Max Maynard was one of the most intriguing characters in the history of our Club as he crossed our stage in the 1930s. A restless and enigmatic figure, he was born in India in 1903 of missionary parents and came to Victoria in 1912, where he was destined to leave an important legacy in the art history of the province.
In 1927, he met a fellow intellectual spirit in Jack Shadbolt, who also taught art in a local elementary school. Maynard had exhibited four times with the Island Arts and Crafts Society but neither had any formal art training. They had both become devotees of the Group of Seven and became frequent visitors to Emily Carr’s studio, realizing that she was a mature artist who had already received national attention and was well-versed in the latest trends in the art world thanks to her sojourn in France. This had left her frustrated in her efforts to throw off the yoke of conservatism in Victoria, and notably in the ranks of the IACS.
Emily initially welcomed the support of like souls expressing the spirit of the land and received them hospitably with cookies and cocoa. Gradually, though, she became irritated at their precocity and proselytizing, and harbouring a suspicion that Max, whose criticism “was not worth a sniff,” was stealing her artistic ideas. “Despicable cads” is how she described them to her friend, Edythe Hembroff. Fortunately, these acolytes resisted her snubs and enjoyed a valuable learning experience which would influence their own painting styles. They would also become her important allies in the cause of “modern art.”
 As daughter Rona amusingly recalled, her school-teacher father would “often bound out at the end of the day, sketchbook tucked under his arm, to meet a stout, middle-aged woman at the wheel of a waiting sedan. The sight of her mesmerized the kids. They had no idea she was going to be a famous artist. Her name was Emily Carr, and she had come to take her acolyte, Max Maynard, sketching.”
In 1932, as IACS Vice-President, Max made a positive contribution to the cause by persuading the Executive to permit the inclusion of a separate “Modern Room” in the forthcoming IACS Annual Exhibition. The seven contributing artists were Emily Carr, Edythe Hembroff, Max Maynard, Jack Shadbolt, Ina Uhthoff, Ronald Bladen and John McDonald.
Max produced one hundred copies of a manifesto entitled “The Modern Point of View” for free distribution. His standpoint was that he had always been strangely moved by nature and had set out to communicate the colour and inner meaning of a visual experience rather than describe the literal facts. Sadly, reception to this imaginative event was disappointing, and most copies of Max’s manifesto were stolen during one of his coffee breaks. The Modern Room made little lasting impression on the public of Victoria, who would have to wait another two decades for further enlightenment on contemporary art, this time with the advent of a new art gallery with a progressive director in Colin Graham. Meanwhile the IACS, with the exception of a few of its artists, reverted to the traditional way of its comfort zone.
However, according to his colleague Edythe Hembroff, the Modern Room experience gave Max the self-confidence to expand his art from sketches and lino-cuts to oils and in a larger format. He remained in Victoria until 1938, developing his own distinctive version of Cubist-style images, but unlike Emily, his mentor, failing to win accolades outside of western Canada.
Max left his mark during a stint as Interim Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery in the 1940s, and later moved on to an extensive and distinguished career as a professor of English Literature at the University of New Hampshire. J. Dennis Robinson, a former student, remembered him as an intense character and a brilliant lecturer, with the gift of bringing his subject vividly to life. Yet she got the impression that Max still thought of himself primarily as a painter. Robinson describes how Max would draw masterful sketches on the chalkboard and leave his students gazing in surprise as he erased them. Indeed, Max was highly skilled in drawing, particularly the human figure, although he is perhaps best known for his  abstracted landscapes with their brilliant colours, usually based on sketches from his ramblings.
On retirement from teaching in 1973, Max took off for England, where he resumed painting, still seeking the fame as an artist that had eluded him over half a century. He returned for his final years to Victoria in 1978 where he finally exhibited in galleries in Canada and the United States. Although he now enjoyed some appreciation in his native land, it probably left his craving for the true recognition unrequited.
Max Maynard passed away in a Victoria seniors’ home in 1982.
Illustrations: (1) Max Maynard (1903-1982); (2) Logs on a Beach, oil on paper, 25 x 30 in.
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 Join VSC member Val Lawton, who doubles as a nature sketch educator with the Bateman Gallery of Nature, for this month's free, family-friendly online workshop.
Val will be looking closely at the magnificent bald eagle, known scientifically as the Haliaeetus leaucocephalus, using Robert Bateman paintings for reference.
Pencil and paper in hand, Val will lead the class to capturing a portrait of this regal raptor.
Date : May 8, 2022
Time : 1 pm
For details and sign up information, go here, and scroll down to the Sky Masters: Draw a Bald Eagle link. |
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Alberni Valley Museum Show-- EmergenceVSC member Avis Rasmussen was successful in having two paintings selected for the upcoming juried Alberni Valley Museum Show, opening May 5th to Sept. 3rd, 2022.
One is an oil painting done at VSC's Beach Acres/Parksville Paint-Out in 2018; the other is the Wickaninnish Inn Seascape II, a watercolour (pictured here).
Congratulations, Avis! |
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 | | Our own VSC member Victor Lotto was featured in an article in a recent issue of the quarterly periodical, Sage Magazine. To read the article in full, go to here |
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Paint Out 2022For those of you considering participating in the September paint out, the week of 6 – 13 September 2022 at Beach Acres in Parksville, please book as soon as possible as accommodation is now limited. Beach Acres and surrounding area has multiple great painting spots and the resort itself is a wonderful place to relax and paint with fellow Club members. There is other accommodation in the area of Beach Acres and the possibility of sharing with other members.
Please contact Anne (bowena@shaw.ca) if you need help teaming up with another club member.
You can make reservations by calling 1 800 663-7309 or at www.beachacresresort.com. |
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