Public Health RegulationsAs outlined in last month's newsletter, the current public health regulations [PHRs] continue to apply when meeting at WPP. So, until we hear otherwise,- Members must wear a mask and present a BC COVID passport upon arrival
- Masks must be worn upon arrival until you sit down. If you later decide to stand up and move around you are free to do so but you must wear your mask
- No refreshments will be available therefore BYOC
- Limit of fifty people in our space
- Weather permitting, windows and doors will be open so bring a woolly
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Call for Poster ImagesHello club members:
We've expanded the original invitation, and are now asking club members to consider submitting one or two images for possible use as either the poster or the invitation doc which will be used to promote the upcoming 2022 VSC Spring Show.
Criteria for the submitted image are:
1. Must be of a painting that will be for sale in the show;
2. For the poster it should be portrait (vertical) format;
3. For the invitation the image may be portrait or landscape (horizontal) format;
4. Image should be in a high quality JPEG format;
5. Two images/person will be accepted;
6. Please forward your images(s) by Tuesday, Dec 14, 2021.
Send your submission to:
Rand at randharr@telus.net
With thanks in advance,
Anne Bowen & Rand Harrison (poster subcommittee) |
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VSC Spring ShowHere is an update on our preparations for our March 2022 Spring Show.
The show dates are 22-27 March 2022 at the GNS Junior School on Beach Drive. 21 March and likely the part of 22 March too being used to set up our first show in three years. A show with several new members in a new venue that has both attractions and challenges. We are planning on having our show opening reception from 7:00 to 9:00 PM on 22 March 2022. What the covid situation will be in March 2022 is unknown. However, we are planning for our show based on the current situation and projections by Dr. Bonny Henry.
Here is what is underway preparing for our coming show.
1. Show Poster selection, please see and respond to Rand's update email yesterday. The dead line is 14 Dec for your submission;
2. The GNS Junior gym has been visited, measured, lighting tested and found acceptable. We are working to find ways to hang our paintings on the gym walls;
3. Our show equipment coupled with that offered by the GNS Society and our members allows us to foresee between 140-160 paintings being shown with the maximum size, including frames being 32 X 42 inches. Paintings for the show must have been done in the last five years. This is a one time precedent. A precedent that recognizes that paintings done and accepted for the 2020 show but were not shown because the show was cancelled. Please do not enter a painting previously shown in a VSC show.
4. We will likely use the successful approach used in 2020 that involved all members having options. Options that allow members to select the number and size of paintings that they would prefer to have in the show. Each option will be based on all members having equal space in the show for their paintings.
5. The Governor of the GNS Society has accepted our invitation to open our show; and
6. We plan to use social media more effectively to advertise our show coupled with all members inviting their friends and associates by email.
We have a good Show Team working on the above. As their work progresses they will start reaching out to our members seeking volunteers. Our show involves all our members. Flexibility will become a key word as we do things differently, in some ways, when setting up our first show in three years.
It is vital that we all understand that the three GNS Schools and GNS Student Residence are now being managed by the GNS Society’s staff. We have a legally binding five year rental contract with the GNS Society. A contract that defines the space we can use in the GNS Junior School. For example on the show reception evening we have use of the kitchen but only for that event. To have use of the kitchen for the show's duration would have added $500 to the annual rent which the VSC Executive Committee decided we could do without. The reality is we can no longer simply ask the Junior School staff for additional resources or whatever instead we are obliged to work with the GNS Facility Manager Ms. Myki Engelland, who is cooperative and helpful. However, to complicate matters for her currently the Junior School does not have its own maintenance staff. Hopefully this situation will be addressed before March. Until, we and the Junior School staff comes better acquainted with the new management system I have restricted contact to the GNS Facility Manager to myself and Agnes whose responsibilities include the show design and layout.
At our meeting on 7 Dec at WPP, and hopefully on line as well, more details will be provided as we move forward with our show plans. It will also allow you an opportunity to ask questions about our coming show.
Cheers,
Larry
President VSC
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Activities COVID-style continue at Windsor ParkMembers are back in the WPP for 'regular but different' Tuesday sketch club gatherings. |
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Kudos to our Ann Nolte!
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History Corner
by John Lover |
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Recently my daughter-in-law Barbara unearthed some paintings from her mother’s collection by an artist named Emily Sartain, whom I recalled was a distinguished painter of wildflowers and had a connection with our club. It transpired that Barbara’s mother, a keen horticulturist, had once commissioned Sartain to paint a picture for her.
Sartain was born at Goring Heath, Oxfordshire in 1903, and educated in London, England. She demonstrated her gift as a watercolourist at an early age and, concentrating on delicately crafted floral portraits, turned professional in 1931. The following year her career took  off when HM Queen Mary, wife of George V, purchased her first exhibited painting – a study of delphiniums and antirrhinums - at an exhibition of the Society of Women Artists- in London.
After contributing to numerous exhibitions in Britain, she came to Vancouver in May 1939 to visit her sister, and during her visit became fascinated with the wildflowers in the area. Unable to undertake the return journey home due to the outbreak of WW2 in September, she stayed in Canada throughout war, taking Canadian citizenship, and holding exhibitions in British Columbia and Alberta to raise money for war charities. Her success continued in the post-war years. In addition to her exhibitions, Sartain gave radio broadcasts about Canadian wildflowers, in which she took a great personal interest, particularly in those species threatened with extinction.
As with most well-known artists in the region she was drawn into the orbit of the Island Arts and Crafts Society and contributed to the Society’s 1948 annual exhibition. Sartain maintained her links with the Society, and, in later years, with the Victoria Sketch Club.
Returning to England in 1951 to complete a pre-war commission, she exhibited freely throughout Britain, and her show in the Coronation Year of 1953 received widespread  attention. She held all the medals which the Royal Horticultural Society awarded for flower painting and contributed five pages to the Society’s Royal Autographs Album, which bore the signatures of both British and Swedish royalty. Her flower pictures were published in a variety of forms in both Britain and Canada,
In 1956 Sartain returned to Canada to continue her studies of the Canadian flora. With her passion for the preservation of wildflowers undimmed, she was on hand to assist the Royal BC Museum in the preservation of the Thetis Park Nature Sanctuary.
By now renowned internationally for her fine workmanship and careful detail, Coutts Hallmark commissioned her to paint the official flower of each Canadian province as part of the 1968 National Centennial Celebration.
Gifted at embroidery and needlework, Sartain also painted animals and landscapes, and experimented with oils. However, her first love remained the wildflower, of which she produced some 5,000 --mainly commissioned-- watercolour portraits.
Sartain was of Huguenot descent, related to Chevalier John Sartain, the famous etcher and engraver of Philadelphia, and her style was considered to resemble that of Pierre-Joseph Redoute and other great French botanical painters.
She died in Victoria in 1990. |
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 Mike Pipes' watercolour paintings
Dates: November and December 2021
Venue: Stairwell Gallery at St Philip Church, Oak Bay
Address: 2928 Eastdowne Road, Victoria
Phone 250-592-6823
The exhibit is open for viewing during regular office hours Tues-Wed-Thurs 9:00-Noon and on Sunday mornings.
There are 18 paintings in the Stairwell Gallery including those shown here.
A wider selection of my work covering 45 paintings is shown on my new web site www.cwotic.com [cwotic is an abbreviation of “See What I See”]
Most of my paintings are ½ sheet and 24” x 18” as framed. |
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Artist of the WeekIf you would like to be VSC's Artist of the Week and be featured on our social media channels, here's your big chance! If you've got any questions, feel free to contact Vicky Turner.
Here is what we'll need you to do:- Attach 3 of your art photos to an email which you will send to victoriasketchclub@gmail.com
- Subject line should read: Artist of The Week
- Include a 2-3 line artist statement
- Be a social media superstar
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Forward your news and relevant pictures or links to the newsletter editor. |
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