ArtSea Studio Tour a window into artistic treasures of the Saanich Peninsula

This year’s tour will give visitors the rare opportunity to meet the artists and see the spaces where their artistic masterpieces comes to life

Tim CollinsSep 20, 2025 8:00 AM

There’s something about the Saanich Peninsula that stirs the best parts of the human soul. 

Perhaps it’s the unrivalled natural beauty of the region – a blend of serene landscapes and stunning coastal views that have the power to leave one breathless. Or, maybe it’s the rich history and enduring connection with the Coast Salish peoples that touches residents and visitors alike.

Whatever the reason, the Saanich Peninsula has the power to inspire, and that inspiration will be on full display as the ArtSea Studio Tour once again showcases the creative expression found in the community.

This year’s tour features 44 artists at 33 separate studio locations, and will give visitors the rare opportunity to meet the artists and see the spaces where their masterpieces comes to life.

“It’s a chance to connect with the artists and it really gives you a great appreciation of these talented individuals,” said Wendy Picken, the volunteer lead of the Art Sea Studio Tour. “Visitors have the chance to view the work – some of it in progress – and to ask questions and get an understanding of the artists inspiration and message.”

It’s the 31st year for the event, in which visitors can visit the artists and engage them in conversations about their techniques and inspirations. There will even be the opportunity to watch some live demonstrations as works of art are created before their eyes.

The ArtSea Studio Tour is more than an art show, of course. It’s a celebration of the amazing creative spirit that characterizes the region.

“There’s no question that the Saanich Peninsula has a rich artistic character,” said Picken. “We have new artists arriving every year and their work spans a vast array of artistic expression. We have every genre of painters, for example, including oil, watercolour and more. We also have sculptors, metal workers, photographers, and fabric art. Honestly, if you can imagine a method of artistic expression…we have it.”

The nature of the tour also allows visitors to discover (or rediscover) the natural beauty, charming eateries, and a host of local wineries or cideries in the area – making for a perfect autumn weekend adventure.

To help you plan your tour, printed brochures and an interactive online map are available at artsea.ca. Brochures can also be picked up at the ArtSea Gallery in Tulista Park, the Sidney Information Centre, and other key locations across Greater Victoria and the Peninsula.

The ArtSea Studio Tour will take place on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 4 and 5, 2025, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.

For more information about the tour, visit artsea.ca/event/2025-artsea-studio-tour/.

Source: https://www.peninsulanewsreview.com/community/artsea-studio-tour-turns-30-7551896

There are infinite ways to make art, it seems, and Rebecca Trapp is a local artist who has found her way to a lesser-known form of creating.

Her approach is called Scratch Art, which starts off with a hardboard, then seven layers of white clay, each one dried in between. Black Indian ink is added on top, then tools are used to scratch through to the white. For extra pizzazz, Trapp sometimes adds colour to the layers.

Before finding scratch art, Trapp had done everything from pastels, pencil crayons, acrylics, oils, wax and glass fusion, which she still does. But thanks to an art show in Arizona, where she met the president of the International Scratch Board Association, she found an art form she really loves.

“I just love the detail that you can get with it, and that’s what drew me to it,” she said.

Trapp’s story illustrates what can happen when artists inspire and connect with the public. She takes that value to the upcoming ArtSea Studio Tour on the Saanich Peninsula, where the public can get an inside look at artists’ studios, their work, and talk with the artists.

“By going through the studio tours, you see the different kinds of art that are actually out there,” Trapp said. “It’s unbelievable really.”

This year, the tour is celebrating 30 years with 39 different studios spread across Saanichton, Sidney, North Saanich and Brentwood Bay.

One stop is the studio of ArtSea member Doug Philips, a woodcarver and metal artist who is currently working on Tree Spirits. These carvings consist of old men’s faces in logs or large branches and come from legends of ancient Celtic and African groups.

“They would carve an image or face into [fallen trees] to help release its benevolent spirit and bring good fortune to their people, their land, their animals and their crops,” he said. Philips will be working on one such creation during the tour.

As a past tour-goer himself, Philips appreciates the tour’s ability to connect people to a “wide collection of excellent art.”

“It just helps you appreciate their creations that much more,” he said.

Pottery artist Sue Starkey, whose property has three studios on the tour, had a similar sentiment.

“You get fired up when you share things and talk about creative ideas,” she said of the event.

Starkey got introduced to clay on a Sunday school outing to Cordova Bay Beach. At 13, she learned how to throw pottery on the wheel with artist Wynn Life at a store in Cordova Bay. This set her on the path to pursue a degree in ceramics and becoming an art teacher.

“I was hooked,” she said. 

Starkey will be displaying outdoor planters and sculptures made of hypertufa – a mix of concrete, peat moss and vermiculite – at her studio, as well as wire creations, and other creations such as a shovel mobile made up from the tools she found “stuck in the dirt” when she moved onto her property. “This place is a wealth of fun things.”

There’s more to the story behind her pieces, of course, and hearing those stories is another part of the ArtSea Studio Tour that makes the event fascinating for so many goers.

The tour runs Oct. 5 and 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

More info can be found at artsea.ca.

Source: Seaside Magazine Online, Page 83