Bella Bella Paints at Painter’s

At Painter’s Lodge, we stayed in the Robert Amos Room.

Robert Amos is a master of watercolour and acrylic painting who lives in Victoria, British Columbia. Four of his watercolours graced the walls of our room.

 

Mr. Amos is one of nearly three dozen Artists in Residence who have been honoured with Artist Signature Rooms at Painter’s Lodge. The doors of guest rooms bear brass plaques with B.C. artists’ names. A biography of each artist is framed inside the designated room, as well as prints of his or her work.

Do you paint? I certainly enjoy lifting a paintbrush from time to time.

Hmm, perhaps I should try doing a portrait of my roommate Audrey. I’ll call it “Not-so-still-life-of-Audrey-watching-birds …”

“… and-getting-paint-on-her-restless-tail ...”

Maybe someday I’ll even give a workshop during Painters at Painter’s, an annual celebration of British Columbia art and artists that has been held at Painter’s Lodge since the mid-1990s. Mr. Amos is one of the artists who has helped to make the event a lasting success.

Painters at Painter’s is held the last weekend in May every year. Hundreds of guests and visitors come to watch artists at work; attend classes and discussions; and admire beautiful exhibits.

My friend Dave was inspired to try a little painting there himself. During Painters at Painter’s, the lodge’s restaurant provides painting supplies!

What do you think of Dave’s creation? (it’s just possible that he’s better at fishing)

 

Not to sound too much like a hungry bear, but I’m glad to see that art can be edible, too:

Painters at Painter’s is a neat play on words. The fishing lodge was named for its founder, E.P. Painter, who was a boat-builder by trade. Now, I don’t think he painted anything but boats! Yet his name has proven perfect for this event.

Painter’s Lodge was purchased by the Oak Bay Marine Group in 1987. Bob Wright, the president of Oak Bay Marine Group, has tremendous respect for art and artists.

As a boy, Mr. Wright had looked at art in the Saturday Evening Post, which he delivered for 5¢ an issue. He really tried to paint, he says, but “… because I couldn’t do it, the next best thing was to appreciate it.”

This photo shows Mr. Wright (on the left) with a great artist named Len Gibbs. They became friends over sixty years ago, when they worked at the same newspaper in Edmonton.

Mr. Wright moved to B.C., where his boss at the Victoria Times newspaper told him there were “deer everywhere, birds to block out the sun, and fish so thick you can walk on them.” Mr. Wright decided that fishing could be a back-up to his newspaper work. He dreamed of maybe a little cabin in the woods, and a small lodge.

Around 1957, the chance came to get government help for a project in Victoria. Mr. Wright headed a committee to lobby for a grant to build a breakwater in Oak Bay. On top of that success, five years later he won 98% approval in a vote to develop a marina in Oak Bay.

“If you’re determined to do something,” he says, “you can make it happen.”

The Oak Bay Marina began operation in 1962. That means that the Oak Bay Marine Group – which now runs eight fishing resorts, six restaurants, five marinas, two museums, and two undersea gardens – is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2012. Mr. Wright’s “little cabin in the woods” turned out to be pretty big!

In 1968, Mr. Wright convinced his old friend Len Gibbs to move to the west coast. And one day in the early 1990s, he phoned Mr. Gibbs and said that, “someone needs to celebrate B.C. artists.” Together, they developed the Painters at Painter’s celebration.

They chose a dozen artists for the first Painters at Painter’s. It was very casual, a chance to give the artists “our thanks to all of you.”

Artists who want to apply now send in a portfolio with photos of three works, and are voted on by other member-painters.

“We think that in twenty or thirty or forty years, this will be much bigger,” Mr. Wright says. “We have artists here who will stand the test of time. This will keep going now.”

“You always try to leave the world a little better than you found it.”

If you have a dream, you should run with it too.

Story © S. Clouthier

Photos © S. Clouthier and D. Wei

Saturday Evening Post cover courtesy Wikipedia