It was a somewhat accidental beginning for the Gamma Garage Art Group of North Burnaby.
Sheila Chowdhury's daughter, Maia, left her UBC architecture school clutter behind when she moved to New York about 14 years ago.
"You paid for it, Mom," she said. "Maybe you can use it."
The only place to house it all was on the rough shelves of a back-lane garage that had a large skylight but neither doors nor heat. Slowly, that space acquired all these and more features. Chowdhury moved in her own art clutter too.
Having trained, in England, to be an art teacher, but having followed other teaching directions, Sheila had continued to produce fabric art and had co-ordinated many school and Brownie group art projects.
"My art junk had reached critical mass," she says. "By the time it was all housed, I realized I had an art studio."
Within the next few years, she was sharing the studio space with two neighbours: Pat Sexsmith, a Burnaby school principal who had retired to study art at Capilano College, and Dianne Yard, a nurse with long-standing ties to the B.C. arts community.
They thought their neighbours would like to see what they were doing, so they put on an art show - with no intention of selling anything. Offers to purchase soon changed their focus, and the Gamma Garage Art Group was born.
Now, more than a dozen years later, the group includes Wilma Cook, a friend from Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast. Last year, Cook brought a challenge to the group: Sechelt artists had produced a quilt-like painting and suggested that other art groups might do their own version.
The Gamma Garage took up the challenge, and the results can be seen at this year's show.
The garage space "cleans up well," Chowdhury says.
"We can hang about 60 or more pieces, and the light is great."
There is room to include work from a guest artist, and this year Robin Timms from North Vancouver will also show paintings. The styles and materials are already varied, so Chowdhury notes that including one more just ups the interest.
"We're a close-knit neighbourhood," she said, " and we never expected our work to travel beyond that. However, we now have a loyal following, and we can certainly say our work is in many countries around the world. But none of us has yet had time to create an art website. We're too busy painting."
You can see this year's Gamma Garage Art Show at 232 North Gamma Ave. on Capitol Hill in Burnaby, on April 12 and 13. It runs from noon to 5 p.m. both days.
