The Island Illustrators Society has been a part of the Victoria landscape for many years. It consists of local professional artists who enjoy coming together to work on group projects.
During 2020, the society’s projects will focus on the 100th anniversary of another group of artists coming together for an exhibit. Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald and Frederick Varley had their first show in 1920 using the name Group of Seven.
The Group of Seven’s Canadian landscape paintings propelled the Canadian wilderness onto the world stage and paved the way for generations of Canadian artists to follow in their footsteps.
The Island Illustrators Society is paying homage to the Group of Seven with many of its members creating local landscape images in watercolour, oil, acrylic, and other mediums. These images are 8” x 10” — a size close to the most common size used by the Group of Seven when they were out in the countryside painting plein air.
Here is a small sample of the work that will be presented in the society’s exhibit and demonstration at the Cedar Hill Cafe Gallery in September 2020 and the society’s exhibit at the Esquimalt library in October 2020.
