Oak Bay has no industry. It’s not the seat of government, military or the university. But it does have a keen cultural community. Studio tours, Bowker Creek Brush-Up, archives, heritage homes, an arts laureate, a movie set — and six art shops on Oak Bay Avenue. You can see why Mayor Nils Jensen is redefining his jurisdiction. This is no longer “a little bit of Olde England,” but is now home to the largest concentration of art galleries on the Island.
The Red Art Gallery has reopened in a new location, right in the centre of the mix. Artist Marion Evamy and her husband Bobb Hamilton have relocated their gallery from Oak Bay near Foul Bay Road to a bright and attractive home on Oak Bay Avenue near Monterey. It’s just up the street from The Gallery on the Avenue, facing the Side Street Studio, across the corner from Winchester Galleries. As you walk by the long frontage of windows, you look directly into the two-storey gallery hung with colourful paintings in Red’s cheerful atmosphere.
Evamy was once a Calgary Realtor, a dog lover who discovered the pet portraits of American artist Ron Burns. Her first efforts in his style were so successful that she gave up selling homes to stand at her easel. Coming to Victoria a few years back, she met Hamilton — himself a Realtor — and together they filled their home with art. After the crush of a particularly successful “artists’ studio tour” they decided, on a whim, to rent a commercial space as a studio and gallery for her. On opening day there was a line of people waiting outside the door. They’ve never looked back.
It was only 500 square feet. “We didn’t want to start big,” Hamilton told me. “Just baby steps.” But within six months they needed more storage and wall space. Artists began to show up with portfolios — five or 10 a week. They now represent 15 artists and, for many of them, this is their first gallery experience. It’s a real talent incubator with a fresh feeling. Evamy can offer a lot to some of the other artists — she is a painter of very evident skill. Hamilton noted that they consistently sell more of her paintings than the other 15 artists combined.
By a stroke of luck, the store next door came up for rent and they took that, too. But, after three years, “we were falling over ourselves,” Hamilton chuckled. The new space is further uptown in Oak Bay between the pub, library, bookstore and bank. It has a mezzanine with skylights for Evamy’s studio, and a mix of spaces on the ground floor. The lights are on 24/7 so window shoppers can see what’s inside. According to Hamilton, people come in for three reasons: to be entertained, to acquire something or to be inspired. Locals walk in every time they go by “to get their colour fix,” he says. And one in three visitors is an artist.
This is art for the home, and is meant to create a mood. “It’s not mainstream art,” Hamilton assured me. “We’re more toward edgy art. … It’s not background art. It demands your attention. Art doesn’t have to make a statement or mean something, but it really needs to give people a feeling. We’re selling art that evokes a feeling.” Apparently the feeling is happiness. He quotes a saying by the famous artist Grant Leier: Colour makes people happy.
Hamilton uses his gallery space for people “to exercise their social conscience,” as he puts it. He has worked fundraising for the Garth Homer Centre’s art program for years, and at the former location has put on shows for the Grade 11 class at a local school, for the kids of the Four Cats art academy, for Elizabeth Litton’s Remembrance Day event, and for the art therapy group from the hospital nearby. The new space is available for meetings, fundraisers and other activities by non-profit organizations.
While we sat and chatted, people came by and pressed their noses to the windows. As I was leaving, a neighbour arrived with a homemade cake. It’s a sociable, neighbourhood place.
Hamilton will hold Red Gallery receptions regularly on the first Thursday of every month, and he is promoting the First Thursday idea among the other galleries: a celebration of art and fun all along the Avenue. Then he began telling me about a vision of the redevelopment of the grassy area in front of the municipal hall as a plaza, a square for public art and a meeting point. “We could have built-in benches … of course we’d save the Garry oaks. The contour is ideal,” he went on.
Colour certainly makes Bobb Hamilton happy. Especially when the colour is Red.
Red Art Gallery, 2249 Oak Bay Avenue, redartgallery.ca, 250-881-0462, open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.