It’s not a surprise that a 104-year-old club is hard to get into, but for artist Terry McBride it was worth the process to be accepted to the Victoria Sketch Club.
McBride, the club’s exhibition director, has been a member of the club for four years after wanting to reconnect with painting.
“I used to live in Ontario, and was a member of an art group there,” she said. “When we moved here I went back to university and when I finished I wanted to get back into painting.”
She was first introduced to the Sketch Club through friends who were members and joined them on an outdoor sketch and paint, then she applied to be a member.
“You have to go through a jury process to become a member,” she said.
Unlike other art groups in Victoria, McBride said the Sketch Club focuses on established artists, with former members including Emily Carr, Samuel Maclure and Ted Harrison.
“The (members) are very gifted artists, so you do learn by painting with them,” she said. She has learned from their professionalism, she added.
In addition to painting and sketching together, and critiquing each other’s work, the club also exhibits together in its annual Spring Show which opens March 19.
“We have 36 members and all the artists are open to submit up to four paintings, which means there will be nearly 150 original works of art,” McBride said.
Even though the club includes sketch in its official name, most of the art on display will include oil, acrylic and watercolour paintings, and many of the works will be on sale.
Two of the artists have also donated paintings as raffle prizes.
“We’ve always had a lot of interesting people come through the show,” said McBride. “The paintings include representational to abstract types of paintings. Some of the artists in the group are quite well known and people come every year to collect their art.”
The Spring Show opens on Tuesday, March 19 with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Glenlyon Norfolk School gym. The show will run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. until Sunday, March 24 at 4 p.m.
For more information about the Victoria Sketch Club and the Spring Show visit victoriasketchclub.ca.