Nancy Wesley grew up in Toronto, worked as a nanny in Dawson City, later lived in Inuvik, sailed across the Atlantic twice in a tall ship, married a pilot and travelled the world, lived in the Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, sailed and travelled around Sri Lanka, and spent a year as a house-sitter in Grenada.
But the single mother put down roots in the Cowichan Valley 10 years ago, with her two sons ,and despite having been into excessive travel around the globe her house is surprisingly spare.
“I’m a minimalist and anything that I collected on my travels had to come home with me in my one sea bag,” she explained.
She is also become something of a handy-woman and typically takes on one big project each year at her 1980s home near Quamichan Lake, which looked eerily familiar when she first saw it.
“Strangely enough this house is a mirror image flip of the house I grew up in in Toronto, although I didn’t realize that untill after bought it. As soon as I walked in I in felt comfortable,” she recalled.
In the last decade she has petty much renovated everything.
“The first thing I did was paint the whole house, inside and out. I took out all the old carpet and put in wood floors. I did the kitchen five years ago and this past year did railings in the living room, which is split level.
I also redid the fireplace which was an ugly old “fake stone thing,” doing much of the demolition herself.
“I usually can’t wait to gut something and I’m pretty handy so I do most of it myself. I have a workshop in my garage and build anything I need. I modified all the IKEA cabinets to fit and do all my own maintenance.”
She loves her sunny house and notes that while it is twice the house she needs, she wanted a traditional house this time.
“I owned two log homes before this and they required extensive renos. They were huge projects. … beautiful and cozy but dark and drafty. I had had enough of log cabins.
“I bought this place because of the light, the fact it comes in the front window even in the winter. It is a great place to do art.”
She has a studio, but says it is crammed with supplies so she does most of her art at the kitchen table and the dining room is her office.
The home has four bedroom and downstairs is a big den, home to three rescue dogs including a 150-pound wolfhound “whose head is over the kitchen counter height.”
“He’s ridiculous.”
She designed her dining table and had it built at Providence Farm, a therapeutic community with a woodworking program, recycling beams from an old cottage taken down by her in-laws in Deep Cove. She collected old oak chairs to match.
Always an artist and an art appreciator, she loves interior design too.
She enjoyed painting and pottery as a youngster but didn’t want to grow up to become a starving artist so she went into graphic design, then moved into other creative things such as starting a little cake decorating business, then doing photography.
Ten years ago she discovered felting.
She uses recycled wool blankets as the background for her pieces, and sometimes turns offcuts into amusing little trees in pastel shades. “I don’t like tacky Christmas but I love natural figures and things made from wool.”
Wesley collects blankets which she boils and then dyes — “I love soft blues and ocean greens, the beach colours, they are always my favourites” — and creates what she calls wool paintings, some two dimensional and some three, using tufts of wool like brush strokes of paint.
It’s been her full-time living for a decade and many pieces decorate her home, making a strong statement agains her with wall.
The artist became a member of the Cowichan Artisans group for the first time, early this year, hoping to meet other local artists — and then Covid hit and everything was cancelled.
“Covid has had a devastating effect on Cowichan artists as well as many others. A lot of us make our living doing craft fairs, teaching, doing workshops … with all of them closed it’s very hard.
“I am making about 30 per cent of what I normally do.”
Fortunately, she created a number of felting kits some time ago and online sales continue all over B.C., at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and online (nan.cdesigns.ca)
“They are fun for adults and children aged 10 and up, especially now during Covid when people are looking for safe things to do at home. They are super light, easy to mail and the technique is simple and easy to learn.
“Once you do you just use imagination, and if you make a mistake it’s easy to fix.”
Wesley said it takes a certain brain to make a living doing art, especially now. “You need to have a good balance between right brain and left brain to be creative, and also run a business.”
She and other members of the Cowichan Artisans group have not been able to hold their usual tours this year but are inviting people who want to get out of the house and go for a drive, to make appointments for one-on-one visits to studios and small home galleries.
ART TOUR
WHAT: Cowichan Artisans tour of 14 professional galleries and studios
WHERE: Cowichan Valley.
WHEN: Studios open by appointment. A list of phone numbers and emails of all artist are on the website.
DETAILS: Maps and information about all the artists — painters, potters, stone, metal and wood workers, furniture makers, jewelry, ceramic and collage artists — available at Cowichanartisans.com
