The artist enclave that meets in Oak Bay and calls Canadian architect Samuel Maclure a founding member hosts its 109th showcase this month.
“It has a long history, Emily Carr was a member … it’s been around a long time and gone through a lot of changes,” says Terry McBride, the program director for the Victoria Sketch Club’s weekly meetings and a former show director. “We always get a turnover in new artists who have different styles so we have really mixed painting styles, so it’s an interesting show.”
The Victoria Sketch Club, the oldest Canadian art group west of Ontario, boasts about 40 members, some who showcase in galleries, and so have a strong following, while others only show during special events, such as the annual spring show at Glenlyon Norfolk School.
“There’s a good range of people who do traditional style, abstract and still people who do interesting water colour and drawings and sketches,” McBride said.
McBride herself is a University of Victoria graduate holds a BA in History in Art as well as education at Victoria College of art and a number of college and galleries in Ontario.
“I primarily paint in acrylics now,” she says. Her love of landscapes remains as she dabbles in exploring abstract styles.
“I’m having fun. It’s good being in a group like this because you sort of feed off each other an get good ideas,” she said.
The group of artists from across the region meets Tuesdays in Windsor Pavilion and in the summer heads out for site visits to paint.
“The sketch club is based on a group of artists who wanted to paint and share artists together so this is our exhibition of what we’ve been doing,” McBride said. “It’s part of our constitution for the club, but also we like to exhibit what we do.”
The main idea is to show the work, but hopefully sell enough to pay for the show.
“We’re lucky that we have a long standing tradition with Glenlyn Norfolk School on Beach Drive,” McBride said.
The annual exhibition features around 150 original paintings by members of the Victoria Sketch Club for the public to view and purchase those paintings. Normally 30 to 40 works of art are sold in the spring show.
Victoria Sketch Club hosts its 109th annual art show at the Glenlyon Norfolk School junior campus gymnasium at 1701 Beach Dr. from March 21 (10 am. to 7 p.m.) to Sunday, March 25 (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) The opening reception is March 20 from 7 to 9 p.m. Visit victoriasketchclub.ca to learn more about the group.
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