The Sooke Fine Arts Show is the biggest Fine Arts event on Vancouver Island and surrounding area; is held every year in late July and runs for 10 days. Out of a typical 10-13,000 entries for the show, around 350-400 are chosen by a panel of jurors and put on display at a venue just outside of Sooke.
This year marked the 7th year out of 9 where we had at least one piece accepted from entered artwork. After last years epic life sized sculpture, Post Mortem Blues, we opted for something much smaller and lower on the price scale. Recently I have enjoyed doing stylized West Coast designs and last year before heading to Asia I did a few stylized bonsai trees blowing in the wind. Both sold within days of making them in our gallery so I figured I was onto something. This year I found a great piece of solid quartz for a base and spent a good amount of time fleshing out a lovely bonsai style tree blowing in the wind. I figured it was well suited to the area we live in considering we can get massive windstorms in the winter with well over 100km hour winds which leave trees permanently bent over in the long run. My father welded on the root bases around the tree and so we shared in the making of this piece.
The show started Thursday night for a pre-purchaser’s gala and doors opened at 7:30pm. Gale Force was sold by 7:45pm and the red sticker was out. We did (playfully) get in a bit of shit for under-pricing our piece, but at the end of the day that is what we would sell it in our gallery for so we were not about to gouge people just because it was an art show as that is not our style. On top of that, we have already been commissioned to make at least two more from others who loved the design after seeing it.
Many years at the Sooke Fine Arts show we donate pieces of our art for the silent auction and this year was one of those years where we went full out. We had a massive $1500 jellyfish and ocean themed lamp which we had made and donated for the silent auction. 3 jellyfish hanging from massive kelp leaves, a base made out of various forged metal to look like the ocean bed with mussel shells and a clam which holds the light switch and wiring at the base. On top of that there are over 250 copper tentacles that hang from the jellyfish which really make the light from the lamps sparkle. All the wiring was done by ourselves as well and this piece is amazing. The minimum bid is $675 so we are hoping this goes much, much higher and raises some good money for the arts on Vancouver Island!
So as always, we urge folks to get out to the Sooke Fine Arts show this year as there is a week remaining yet! There is lots of art from various mediums and even though we think 3D art is VASTLY under-represented at the Sooke Fine Arts show every year, we still enjoy going ourselves and being a part of it.
Last thing worth mentioning is that the gallery gift shop houses art from all accepted artists with nothing being allowed to cost more than $150. In fact, many artists, myself included always make more money from the gift shop than we do selling the main piece or pieces on the floor. Damaris and I buy a few things from the shop every year and this year was no different. Being an artist myself I love to support others when I have the funds to do so! This is an excellent place to drop in and support some local artists if you see something you love!