Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh once praised the act of outdoor painting in a letter addressed to his brother, dated 1885.
“Just try going outside and painting things on the spot,” van Gogh wrote. “All sorts of things happen then.”
That advice was clearly heeded recently when 12 painters were invited to take to Cypress Mountain for the 2017 Paint on the Mountain plein air painting competition and exhibition Aug. 6.
British Pacific Properties first put on the event last year as a way to contribute to West Vancouver’s arts community and engage the public about its Cypress Village project, a planned mixed-use village that would be located generally near the first switchback on Cypress Bowl Road.
The idea was simple: show the public what Cypress Village could be by having artists showcase some of its best features – the views and the closeness to nature.
“Why don’t we have, as a way of getting people to come up and see the sight and be part of this planning process, is do a plein air competition on the Cypress Village planning site and get artists to come up there and invite people up to watch them paint?” explained BPP president Geoff Croll, describing when the suggestion was first made to the developer by a creative consultant.
About 150 people showed up at McGavin Field on Cypress Bowl Road last Sunday for the plein air competition.
The 12 competing artists were spread out across 100 acres as they painted their outdoor scenes.
“We had little maps so people could find them in the woods and watch them in action and ask them questions. The artists were really great about interacting with people who came by and told them what they’re doing and what they’re seeing,” Croll said.
It was announced the next day at the Harmony Arts Festival that painter Shirley Claire Williams had won the plein air competition for her piece entitled Where the Faeries Play.
“There was just this opening off the path that looked so magical and I immediately thought of The Hobbit series. And I thought, ‘OK, I must do this.’ I think it took probably about two and a half hours to paint,” Williams said.
Although a combination of smoke and haze could have put a damper on the event, both Croll and Williams explained that, at least for the painters, the smokiness created an interesting environmental backdrop to paint, one that included more vibrant oranges and reds as opposed to the usual abundance of the colour green.
Asked why Williams thought her piece took home the gold she was modest, but admitted one comment that was made to her was that her piece was able to capture the “enchanted” aspect of the scene.
“I like that word, it really spoke to me because that was exactly how I felt – I was in an enchanted, otherworldly place,” she said.
This year, a plein air competition held at Ambleside as part of the Harmony Arts Festival coincided with BPP’s Paint on the Mountain event.
Croll said the two events this year were combined, with a grand prix round of open air painting occurring Aug. 5 that was open to anyway.
Three jurors then selected the top 12 artists to compete in the plein air competition at Cypress the following day.
“The nice thing about inviting these artist up – they look at the landscape through a completely different lens that’s not inhibited by preconceived notions,” Croll said.
The artwork was then put on display at the Harmony Arts Festival for the remainder of the week.
