By Wendy Bryan
The Arbutus Ridge Art Club is excited to be able to hold a show and sale after the pandemic hiatus. Our last show was in 2018. Planning for the show in 2020 was well underway when the pandemic hit and everything screeched to a halt.
Now we are confident that we can safely hold the Arbutus Ridge Art Club Show and Sale 2022 on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 5 and 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day in the Mount Baker Room at the Arbutus Ridge Golf Club, 3515 Telegraph Rd., Cobble Hill.
Many of the pieces that will be on display were created during the pandemic. Although we were not able to get together in person to share ideas and techniques, members found other ways to connect. In the early days of the pandemic, long-time member Wendy Bryan decided to challenge others to use their talents to create art on a topic given weekly and submit a photograph to her. These were collated and distributed to all members to provide inspiration.
“Our members responded and kept painting! It was wonderful to see and quite rewarding,” said Bryan. “Having challenged others, I felt I had to produce a painting for each topic, so I did. I’m glad that the art club has persevered when so many other groups have folded.”
Several of Byran’s watercolour and acrylic paintings will be on display at the show.
“I have doodled and drawn for most of my life, painted in oils as a teen, picked up acrylics in my 20s, tried watercolours in my 40s, and still use a variety of media. I find some topics lend themselves to a particular medium, so go with what inspires me,” she said.
“I work mostly from photographs I have taken around Vancouver Island. One of my favourite paintings was based on a photo I took of a derelict building on the Trans-Canada Highway just north of Allenby Road in Duncan. Just a few months after taking the picture, the building was torn down. It made a perfect subject for our challenge topic of ‘Stay Home’. I called it ‘Home, Sweet Home’. Another local photo prompted my acrylic painting ‘Bright Angel Park Swimming Hole’.”
You can see these paintings, and more, in person at the art show and sale. Admission is free.
Wendy Bryan is a member of the Arbutus Ridge Art Club.