Anyone who has ever fantasized about peeking behind the curtain of a play, or tiptoeing into the wings for a different angle on a production will enjoy what the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is staging.
The Art of Dramatic Living is the title of this year’s house tour, and the Sept. 13 event will feature half a dozen homes belonging to theatrically engaged owners, who will draw back the curtains on their own residences, and allow the public to make a grand entrance.
The homes belong to former performing-arts board members, a properties mistress, an artistic director of opera and theatre as well as Belfry Theatre board chair emeritus Paddy Stewart.
Ticket holders will also see arrangements by members of the Victoria Floral Artists Guild, and have a chance to meet some of Victoria’s best artists, who will be working at each of the homes.
Stewart bought his 1932 Tudor-inspired Uplands house more than 40 years ago, and one of the first things he did was remove all the doors on the main level to create a gallery-like, walkabout space. He tore up all the grey shag, painted over the pink walls and hired architect John Keay to design a conservatory and guest suite over the carport.
Stewart has been collecting art since he was 18, and his home and garden have become the backdrop for his extensive collection of canvases and sculptures. “The very first painting I bought was with my mother, after we went to a Jack Shadbolt show in Vancouver. It was of sailboats on a kind of black sea. Then I bought a Picasso litho. … My grandfather had a great collection,” said Stewart.
His grandfather started Canada Packers and set up the family’s first foundation, the MacLean Foundation, in the mid-1930s. It has $50 million in assets. Another fund, called the Stewart Fund, is held at the Vancouver Foundation.
During the tour, visitors will be invited to wander not only though the house but also the garden, which is a series of outdoor sitting rooms, some with brick, and some with pink carpets made of jasper pebbles from the B.C. Interior. An ironwork spider gate and other forged elements are by Richard Mosselman.
The gallery experience begins at the front door, where a silhouette-style sculpture of a moose stands on the roof.
Once inside, visitors will be greeted by one of Charles Pachter’s pop icons, a large canvas from his Canadian flag series, and moving into the kitchen they will spot paintings by Jack Wise, Bruno Boback, Catherine Moffat and Frankie Miller, as well as sculptures by Paul Burke and Wayne Ngan — not to mention a living “basil boot” on the window sill.
The living and dining rooms are filled with art and the conservatory is filled with light as well as sculptures, the most dramatic of which is a totemic piece by Elza Mayhew.
There are oils by Riopelle, a little Tristan Landsdowne, a Herbert Siebner, several pieces by Grant Leier and Nixie Barton, Pat Martin Bates, B.C. Binning and more.
At the top of the stairs, visitors will likely stop short when they see one of two crucifixion triptychs by Jeff Burgess, whose works are in the collections of Microsoft, Fairmont Hotels, the Alberta Art Foundation and more. Influenced by historical European painters, it’s an understatement to say this artist explores an alternate religious universe.
Paddy recalls the circumstances of finding his house 41 years ago were a little different too.
One Saturday morning he received a call from a friend who said she had an opportunity for him and told him about a house that was not on the market but was up for sale privately.
Stewart loved what he saw and offered $70,000 on the asking price of $75,000.
His offer was accepted but the owner suddenly said he wanted the money on Monday and as Stewart had not yet sold his current house he rang his parents.
They flew over from Vancouver to take a look.
“I remember, my father going nuts saying: How can you put in an offer on a house when you have no money? But I said my own house was worth $40,000.
“My mother, who was a serious gardener, was walking around outside and saw the potential. Father was ragging my sorry ass but my mother said: For God’s sake Doug, give him the money. It’s the smartest thing he’s ever done,” recalled Stewart with a chuckle.
Stewart noted that only 10 years later, when he put on the sunroom, guest room and brick paths it cost $71,000 — “A grand more than the whole house.”
He has kept the home much the same as it was, with all the original leaded glass, although he did update the kitchen immediately. He hasn’t touched it since, and still uses the original Jenn-Air. His old pal and contractor Bill Cameron designed it and did the work, creating shelves across a window, an eating area with banquette and a wooden ceiling.
“He had some extra maple so he put a floor on the ceiling,” said Stewart, who is on the AGGV’s acquisition committee for contemporary art and first came to the Island in 1969 after being invited to teach at Royal Roads.
“I was tired of stacking bales in 100 degree heat in Ashcroft, so my pregnant wife Judy and I packed everything up and moved down.”
For many years he commuted to Ashcroft, in the Interior, but he got out of the ranching business about 10 years ago.
He became president of the Belfry in 1975 and has been its super-donor ever since, “I call myself the beaten angel.”
He is now helping gear up for the company’s 40th anniversary and planning a concerted push to get more people involved and “improve what we’ve got.”
Tour to feature artists at work
Catherine Moffat will be painting on site at Paddy Stewart's house during the house tour, and will be working in oils - her preferred medium for the last 10 years.
“I worked in watercolour for about 20 years and then decided to switch to oils because watercolours were falling off the map. You don't see glass in galleries anymore,” she explained.
She added the changeover process was arduous, “it took months and months,” and she compares it to a musician switching from a tuba to a violin.
But now she is hooked on the medium, and is painting bigger and bigger canvases in the style of classical realism, with a group show opening in October at the Avenue Gallery and continuing display of her work at the Peninsula Gallery.
She is also furiously working on paintings for the Sidney Fine Arts show in October, where one of her works recently took first place.
Moffat specializes in portraiture and still life, and will bring several to the gallery house tour, to show visitors the range of her work.
