Thousands of art lovers mobbed Moss Street Saturday to admire — and sometimes even purchase — works from the 160 artists chosen for the annual event that’s become a part of Victoria’s personality.
“I notice that people here just welcome artists,” said painter Susan McGillivray, a longtime former resident of the Lower Mainland who has taken to depicting large canvasses of purple camas. “There’s nothing like this in Vancouver.”
It’s not just the number of artists at the TD Art Gallery Paint-In that transforms Moss Street. It’s the variety, from well-known names such as Jennifer Lawson and her vivacious pastels to Blythe Scott, due for a major gallery show this fall for fantasmagorical bird’s-eye views of Victoria, to several artists associated with Our Place.
One of them, Glenn Frazer, painstakingly inked brilliant blues onto his pencil drawing of a heron, one of his favoured wildlife subjects. Now 53, he’s lived at Our Place for three years, honing skills instilled at the Kootenay School the Arts. An early marriage, divorce, disability and drug addiction put him on the streets.
“I managed to get back into my art work and it’s been a very healing thing,” he said. “I’m really doing well. Most of my time is spent doing my art at Our Place. It keeps me out of addiction.”
Tracy Campbell, community relations co-ordinator of Our Place, said the concentration required by art often absorbs anxiety. For some, it’s a more articulate way to express themselves.
“It’s a gateway for communication,” Campbell said. For her, one of the best parts of the Paint-In was watching Our Place artists get into “really meaningful conversations” with strangers interested in them and their work.
For most of the artists at the Paint-In, exposure is the name of the game. People take their business cards and contact them later.
For most of the artists at the Paint-In, exposure is the name of the game. People take their business cards and contact them later.
Susan Underwood was happy to demonstrate linocuts — most people don’t realize each is an original, she said — pulled from a design carved on a plate of zinc or copper.
By 2 p.m., Adele Andrew had sold five original canvases, earth-tone geometrics in thick acrylic layers. “I’ve always liked to have a muted palette,” she said.
Customer Jim Blakeney of Victoria, buying cards at Lawson’s stall, wasn’t keen on all the colour on the walk. “There’s a lot of stuff with a lot of colour, but it ain’t put together too well.”
It’s a first time for Mel Williamson, of Salt Spring Island, who had sold a subdued canvas, Beachside Marilyn (Monroe) for $500 but typically relies on everyday people as her subjects, such as the bar staff at Chateau Victoria.
“The creaminess of oil really can’t be beat,” Williamson said.
A lemonade stand set up for Barrie Webster’s Moss Street grandchildren, aged four and six, tallied $150 for children devastated by the April earthquakes in Nepal.
There was also a “visitor” from 1865, in the form of Kathryn McAllister, handing out invitations to Sunday’s 150th anniversary celebration at Ross Bay Villa.
And if you’re wondering how hot it is under a floor-length skirt, cage crinoline, petticoats, chemise and shin-length drawers and stockings (ordered from a supplier to Civil War reenactments), McAllister said not to worry.
“It’s actually not that bad.”
