Gulf of Georgia Cannery

Here is the full painting of "The Wheel". Richmond Artists Guild was asked to do an exhibit for the Gulf of Georgia Cannery - which is a national historic site. There are really interesting displays inside and there are tour guides to add to the information.  Several years ago I took visitors from New Zealand through the building and they totally loved it - had fun taking pictures of each other tossing the "salmon" into a bin, for one thing. Since then, even more displays have been added.  When the Grand Prix was on, those who run the Cannery were delighted to find so many paintings being done of the building and they decided it would be a good addition to the indoor Farmers' Market held through the winter. We hung the paintings Thursday and Friday so they were up for the first market Sunday, October 5th. They will remain to be viewed now until after the next market on October 19th. Everything is local scenery - especially the Cannery- or ship-related.  There is no admission charge on Market days - so a good time to tour and see everything- including 26 paintings from Guild members.  I have my little pleinaire painting of the Cannery and also this one of the wheel of the Balclutha.  Shh- it isn't local as the Balclutha is moored as part of San Francisco's outdoor Maritime Museum.

Maritime Festival

Richmond had its 8th annual Maritime Festival last weekend at Britannia Shipyards and the Richmond Artists Guild was invited to take part. We had a tent for a display of (mostly) maritime paintings. I set up the scheduling for "sitting" the show and for having painters on site. I was going to paint but found the sun too much so just did some sketching and photography- reference shots. I told everyone that it wasn't for selling but just to represent the Guild, make people aware that we exist, give out our new business cards and so on. We did get a good response. However, and much to my surprise, I actually sold a painting. It was "The Balclutha" which is an old sailing ship down in San Francisco. We had a perfect day when we visited it as it was sunny but very few people were there so it was easy to get people-free photos. Needless to say, I did not paint on the spot as just drawing all the rigging took some time before I even got to the painting. At any rate, the painting has found a good home. It goes to show that you never know when a painting will be in the right place at the right time. The Festival itself was really interesting with lots to see and do. For most of us, our favourite performer was the Eagle- on stilts- and I have recorded her in my sketchbook.