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Robert Amos: A Greater Victoria fine-arts roundup

Eclectic Art and Gifts (2170 Oak Bay Ave., 250-590-8095) has recently been sold.
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Dusk in Summer Run Cove, Clayton Anderson, acrylic on canvas, at Madrona Gallery

robertamos.jpgEclectic Art and Gifts (2170 Oak Bay Ave., 250-590-8095) has recently been sold. The new owners, Chris and Anne-Louise Brooks, intend to maintain the distinct flavour that the founders, John and Vijaya Taylor, have created in this well-loved local gallery space.

Vijaya Taylor came to the project with a long background as a dealer of semi-precious stones — turquoise, amber, coral and crystals. It was a natural that her shop would feature creative jewelry, enhanced by the addition of a wide range of ceramics, wood turning and carvings by local and national craftsmen.

Her husband, John Taylor, has a long career as a professional photographer, specializing in architectural subjects and working in the fine-art realm. To Eclectic, he brought dozens of local artists, and what began as a gift shop evolved into a gallery space. Eclectic came to represent Pat Martin Bates and the estate of Walter Dexter, and through those associations developed a specialty in work by the Limners and other artists of the previous generation.

In their retirement, the Taylors will continue to advise the new owners in a consultant role.

 

Polychrome Fine Arts (A-977 Fort St., 250-382-2787) has announced it will close its doors at the end of June. It is the commercial venture of Shawn Shepherd and his wife Mary Patterson, and Polychrome has had a distinctive niche as an outlet for young and edgy creative types. Shepherd came to the gallery business as a very effective and imaginative painter, and brought his many contacts in the art community.

Polychrome began on Fort Street near the former site of Kilshaw’s Auctioneers (now moved to Langley Street) in June 2009. The gallery then moved to its current tiny spot farther down Fort. There, I discovered an excellent range of artists, including Caleb Speller, Ingrid Mary Percy and the venerable Lance Olsen. It has always been a sort of “salon,” with artists dropping in and distracting Shepherd from his picture-framing chores.

Shepherd was recently accepted into the master of fine arts program at the University of Victoria, and Mary Patterson is returning to her vocation as a baker of desserts for some of Victoria’s finest restaurants.

 

Winchester Galleries continue to develop. Their property at the east end of Oak Bay Avenue was sold a year ago, with the understanding that the gallery would remain in place there for several years. A development application is in process that would see townhouses constructed on the property behind the current gallery.

Meanwhile, Winchester is set to open a second gallery in early June. Those with long memories will recall the gallery’s original downtown location on Broad Street, which later moved to a spot at the corner of Blanshard and Humboldt. What was known as Winchester Modern took up a position at the other end of that plaza on Humboldt. With the sale of those properties a few years ago, Winchester regrouped at its flagship Oak Bay location.

Now Winchester will have a downtown front in what was Alcheringa’s former space at 655 Fort St. Two years ago, Alcheringa Gallery moved one block west, and has made itself at home in a tall, bright display space at 621 Fort St.

 

Director Jon Tupper sent an update on the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s renovation plans.

“Kicked off by the original donation from the late artist Anthony Thorn,” he wrote, “the art gallery has had tremendous success with our capital campaign. We know there is great support for our plans by Victorians and those, like Michael Audain, who have deep roots in our community. The federal government has indicated to us that we are eligible for matching funding. We are still getting some resistance from the provincial government, but plan to go back to them once the new government is announced.”

 

Madrona Gallery (606 View St., 250-380-4660) has new paintings by Clayton Anderson, on show until May 27. Anderson lives in Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast, and his landscape oils were a regular feature in Heffel’s Fine Art Auctions in Vancouver. This is his first solo show in Victoria.

Anderson concentrates on the unpeopled landscape of the Pacific Northwest. With simple planes of subtle colour, he represents the atmospheric expanses of the coast, bringing to mind the simplified visions of the Ontario landscape made popular by A.J. Casson. Casson’s paintings lent themselves to the screen prints created by Sampson and Matthews a half-century ago, and Anderson’s even passages of colour might also work well in that medium.

What sets Anderson’s paintings apart from many landscape artists are his superb tone and colour choices. Sky and trees are reflected with a perfect rightness in the shallow waters at the tideline. Falling across these reflections are bands of shadow, offering a palpable coolness to the forest scene. In the distance, the setting sun bathes the face of a mountain massif with a warm glow, sunshine complementing the powder-blue tints on its shadow side.

Yet Anderson doesn’t bother indicating “the hand of man,” leaving his paintings in a decorative realm. For a bit of life as it is lived on the coast, one need look no further than West End Gallery (1203 Broad St., 250-388-0009) where a compendium of West Coast landscape is now on show. In particular, I note the paintings of Greta Guzek, who brings us seaside cabins and fishing boats. Also in that show are the grand nature scenes of Steven Armstrong and the reductive coastal motifs of Dana Irving, a sort of softened Lawren Harris approach.