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House Beautiful: A light, bright transformation in Esquimalt

Robert Youds uses aluminum, neon lights, Plexiglas and digital signs to create glowing sculptures and pulsating paintings. But in his house, he aims for a less intensely psychedelic sensory experience.

Robert Youds uses aluminum, neon lights, Plexiglas and digital signs to create glowing sculptures and pulsating paintings. But in his house, he aims for a less intensely psychedelic sensory experience.

When he and his wife, Christine Toller, bought the home in Esquimalt in 2009, it had just a little too much “character” for their taste, partly because the previous owners had a passion for Mexican and Southwest design.

“There were wooden friezes over the windows and easily 20 different colours on the walls,” said Youds, a professor of visual arts at the University of Victoria who teaches graduate students.

He has also exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, among others.

“It is a very modest house, but it does have a warm, yet contemporary feel,” he said. “It was built in 1995 and we renovated the previous owners’ vision into something more contextually relevant to the 1940s international-style homes we are surrounded by.

“We enjoy the fact this is an enclave of Art Deco-styled homes.”

One of the first things the new owners did was make some changes to the exterior.

“We removed some funny eyebrows that projected out over the windows.” They also turned a carport into a downstairs studio, adding glass-panelled garage doors so the light pours in.

They repainted the interiors in greyed white, totally renovated the kitchen and master bathroom, and created a separate office downstairs. “That was a priority,” said Youds.

The living area is upstairs, while the ground floor includes a large, high-ceilinged foyer and guest suite.

The staircase creates a spacious, light-filled open space behind the living-room chimney.

 

Starting afresh with a more subdued palette, they added a few bold strokes in the form of a black and white geometric carpet in the living room and some mid-century and contemporary furniture.

They found a candy-bright lime-green sofa at Inform Interiors, by Danish-Canadian designer Niels Bendtsen, and a classic dining table and chair set designed by Jean Prouvé. A colourful Mondrian-like bookshelf in the dining room was designed and built by Allan Collier, whose design is an interpretation of a famous 1952 piece by Prouvé, French architect Charlotte Perriand and designer Sonia Delaunay.

“The living and dining rooms had enough flourishes, so we simplified everything,” Youds said.

With the loud colours removed from the living room, there is more emphasis on details such as an animated round artwork that spins, made by Youds, who notes that humans are coded to track motion.

Part of its appeal lies in the visual illusion created by watching it move, then switching to staring at the wall, which then seems to move in the opposite direction. “The psychological term for this is the waterfall, a visual illusion created by watching a moving object, like a waterfall, and then switching one’s stare to something still. The movement after-effect is an interesting phenomenon.”

Youds, who had a major exhibition of his work at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria a few years ago, said he likes to undermine the “notion that pictures always have to be fixed.” He said the gallery is inspirational and shows good-quality contemporary work as well as pieces from its solid Asian collection.

When it comes to their own collection, the two are always concerned with light, sightlines and a feeling of space.

In the kitchen, for instance, they removed a large L-shaped island and replaced it with a smaller rectangle.

“We stripped everything out because we really are minimalists,” said Toller, who also trained as an artist and was a designer at Orca Book Publishers for many years before switching to web and blog writing for Gabriel Ross.

“Having fewer cabinets and less storage space stops us bringing any more stuff into the kitchen,” she said with a chuckle. “It also creates a nice, open, visual space. It was cluttered and overbearing before with so many colours, and it was more Mexican than Mexico.

“We enjoy this more contemporary look, the way we can see right through the house now. It’s a bit rustic, mixed with contemporary.”

They have achieved much of that modern look through their choice of lighting fixtures, including a couple of Parentesi dangling and hanging lights. “It really is amazing the way it slides up and down on its own wire, and the base has an industrial feel,” Youds said.

The two have also created a unique new patio in their back garden, which was previously just a steep rocky area.

They wanted a place to sit outside but didn’t want a lawn, so they came up with the idea of a catwalk to bridge the gap to a new seating area. They poured a teardrop-shaped concrete pad at the end of the catwalk and edged the sitting area in timber bamboo. A host of hostas was then planted below.

Youds found the aluminum grate catwalk through a salvage company in Duncan and filled part of it with concrete for the path. “It won’t need any repairs, so it was both a practical and sculptural solution. I like the industrial aspect and we are always looking at repurposing materials.”

Toller said the new patio is a great place to sit because it’s warm and sheltered in the winter, and cool in the summer.

“We have always been very attracted to homes that have inner courtyards and elements of privacy,” said Youds, who noted they used to have a 1950s modernist bungalow in Cadboro Bay.

“It was a beautiful home and we spent 10 years renovating it. Then we moved to a downtown condo for a while, but decided we wanted a garden again. We were attracted to the house and really enjoy this area because there are beautiful walks nearby.”

And of course, Youds now has a spacious, light-filled studio for his work.

The artist says he’s drawn to “anything involving light or the history of light,” which is why he enjoys making electrically based pieces and allows the wiring to be visible.

“Rather than hiding it, I just present it.” An electrical wire swings across his current canvas like an artistic mark, leaving its own skinny shadow. “It’s a tenet of modernism, a contemporary way of handling aspects of technology, to show the structure, like girders on the outside of a building.”

Youds’ interests range from aesthetics to how people perceive the world around them and in particular the nature of our urban setting, from neon signs to artistic storefronts and commercial architecture.

“It’s the dance back and forth that fascinates me.”