For Marcela Strasdas, inviting the community into her Gordon Head home is about getting a rare chance to connect with the public.
“As artists we are usually in the studio painting,” said Strasdas, a plein air oil and acrylic specialist whose house at 3876A Finnerty Rd. is one of 17 stops on the 2017 Hills To Shore Artists Tour. “This is a chance to see people’s reactions to your work.”
The Cadboro Bay, Gordon Head and Mount Tolmie neighbourhoods combined their annual spring art tours a few years ago. Doors are open to the participating houses from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
“I actually do the art tour to increase my own comfort with sharing my work,” said Allan Castle, a corporate consultant by day who specializes in landscape paintings from his Ten Mile Point home. “I’m not focused on selling but I am interested in engaging the public.”
Castle is opening his home with partner in art, and life, Colette Baty, who will show her sculpture, collage and photography, from their home at 2938 Tudor Ave.
For Castle, art is a growing part of his life. He always “dabbled” until about five years ago when he attended workshops at the Vancouver Island School of Art in Quadra Village. Since then he’s doubled down on his painting and is also a board member at VISA. Like Strasdas, this is his second year on the Hills To Shore Tour.
“The amalgamation of the three tours has been great, all three were in May and it used to be all three tours wrangling for which May weekends to hold it on so we didn’t overlap,” said Jill Fitz Hirschbold, another stop (4030 Locarno Ln.).
A professional and skilled photographer, Fitz Hirschbold has published three photography books and shot more than 7,000 cyclists for Ryder Hesjedal’s Tour de Victoria. She’s also got a keen eye for catching abstract and architectural imagery on the West Coast.
Visit gobc.ca for information on the tour.
