The annual Art Gallery Paint-In — Victoria’s largest one-day art festival — can be a big boost for participating artists with prospective customers and gallery opportunities waiting to be discovered.
“Butchart Gardens found me here,” said Ladysmith-based painter Tylor McNeil. “I’ve got commission work through here, through just people coming across.”
An estimated 40,000 art afficionados descended on Moss Street on Saturday for the event, which is a fundraiser put on by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
Displays from about 160 artists, who came from around Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, stretched along 10 blocks of Moss Street from Fort Street to Dallas Road.
Eight art-making booths run by the gallery — dubbed Imagination Stations — provided shade and activities for those who found the urge to create.
At one booth, Tseshaht First Nation elder Jessica Sault led sing-alongs and beading workshops for children.
Natalie Rollins, the gallery’s public program coordinator, was nearby demonstrating flat stitch beading.
The gallery received permission from Cree artist Kent Monkman to recreate some of the beading patterns in his artworks during the Paint-In, she said.
Other booths included opportunities to try out watercolours and clay art.
“I think it’s a wonderful mix of art,” said Gloria Moreson, who had come in from Piers Island off the Saanich Peninsula to visit friends exhibiting at the Paint-In and had brought along first-time attendee Dawn Jenkinson, who had similar notes of appreciation.
Art Gallery director and CEO Nancy Noble said that apart from hourly guided gallery tours and more outdoor seating and shade options this year, nothing much had changed. “It’s kind of a winning formula,” she said. “We just try to make it more comfortable for people each year.”
The gallery is always happy to show the artistic talents in the region, she said.
After more than 30 years of the event, Moss Street residents have come to expect the Paint-In, with some setting up misting stations, lemonade stands as well as their own unofficial art booths.
“There’s a few parties up and down the street,” Noble said with a laugh.
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has been debating relocating to a downtown Victoria location in recent years and the Paint-In would likely be relocated to be near the new location if that happens, though any potential move of the gallery would be years away, Noble said.
“It’s our event. So it will follow … but we’ll have to see. We have a lot of planning to do.”
McNeil, who has been an on-and-off exhibitor at the event since 2010, was among the few artists working on a piece of art during the Paint-In.
“Before, the Paint-In was all about you painting. It was almost a mandatory thing that artists be painting or demonstrating a skill,” he said of previous Paint-Ins.
McNeil wasn’t working on anything commercial on Saturday — he was partway through a two-by-three foot painting of his son tucked in bed with a teddy bear.
“It’s a gift for my wife — every 10 years, she gets a painting,” he said with a smile.
