Category: General

Emily Carr

Emily Carr sculpture

Canadian artist and writer Emily Carr has a permanent monument in Victoria on Government Street. As a mid-20th century artist, she was a rare woman to gain prominence and her interest in Aboriginal peoples was also unique in its time. Her love of nature is captured with exuberance in her paintings. She is portrayed here with one of her dogs and her monkey Woo. Carr’s home in Victoria, a boarding house that supported her in her later years, is preserved and open to the public during summer months. Those of us visiting Victoria when it’s not open can see Emily Carr on the street.

Victoria art fix

Art Gallery Japanese

On this trip to Victoria we decided it was time to range further than our usual walks through the Inner Harbour. We explored the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, an art haven in the residential area of Rockland that’s just beyond the coverage of most Victoria tourism maps.

The gallery hosts an eclectic variety of Asian art, decorative arts, and a room showcasing legendary Canadian Emily Carr. It’s a relatively small gallery with a nice layout.

Art Gallery Carr

In an ongoing exhibition, “Emily Carr and the Young Generation,” the art career of Carr is presented in a chronology that traces her development as an artist, finishing with examples of work by younger artists she influenced. Check back tomorrow to meet Emily Carr.

Art Gallery Spencer

The gallery is a more modern addition to the Spencer Mansion which houses administrative offices and is available for event rentals. Outside is an Asian garden with a Shinto shrine.

Parliament peek-a-boo

Parliament peekaboo

One of the prominent features in Victoria B.C.’s Inner Harbour area is the Parliament Building. The building is topped by a golden statue of Captain George Vancouver, the English explorer who surveyed the coastal Pacific Northwest and after whom Vancouver Island is named. Here you see Captain Vancouver peeking over the top of Parliament.

Parliament

Variously called neo-baroque, Renaissance Revival and Romanesque Revival, the building was designed by Francis Rattenbury and completed in 1897.

The Coho ferry

Coho cart

One of the nice things about Sequim is the ease – and pleasure – of travel to Canada. A 90 minute ferry ride on the Black Ball Ferry M.V. Coho takes travelers across the international border into Victoria B.C.

Day trip or longer, it’s like travel in the olden days of the last century. Dare I say it? You don’t have to remove your shoes, belts, keys, or day packs as stern people x-ray you and your gear for overly large bottles of shampoo or lotion. The lineup for customs isn’t onerous and the agents are even polite, if not pleasant. It’s a welcome throwback.

I’ll show you some of what I saw on my recent trip to Victoria in the coming days.

Eagles 1, Seagull 0

Eagle lunch 1

I saw two very large profiles in a field. Even at a distance they were too big to be anything but eagles. At first it was just two heads. One was feeding on something. Feathers. Fluffy white feathers. The drama began when the second eagle tired of waiting its turn.

Pairs of eagles will team up. They will coordinate an airborne attack on a seagull. While the seagull is fast and can maneuver quickly, eagles have tremendous strength and endurance when they’re determined. A seagull is no match. This pair of eagles was adult and an immature that was just beginning to show white on his head and tail.

Eagle lunch 2

When the younger eagle decided it wanted lunch it launched an attack on the adult which here is just raising its left wing. The seagull – lunch – is the brown and white mass behind the adult eagle.

Eagle lunch 3

The conflict, a flurry of huge wings, lasted only seconds.

Eagle lunch 4

When the younger eagle came down it apparently landed on the prey long enough to grab some lunch. I briefly turned away. The garage door beyond the eagles opened and the story was over.

I’m taking a break for a few days. I’ll be back again later this week.