Buskers and artists alike have been out in force throughout the first week of the annual Art Walk and Sale in Williams Lake.
Willie Dye, who is also known under the moniker of Arty the Art Walker, says that the celebratory tour — which featured around 15 of this year’s 60 participating venues — was the perfect way to launch the event this year.
“We had about 35 people come out to start with and it was a really great way to kick off the event this year,” said Dye.
Dye explained that despite a nearly month long delay last year, the Art Walk and Sale 2017 was still considered a great success, continuing to note that this year’s event has been filled with optimism.
“We have more merchants and artists than we did last year, and the reception has been really great,” said Dye. “Last year, despite the delay, we still had 56 venues and 56 artists. In and of itself, it was still exceptional considering that we postponed Art Walk for close to a month. This year we have 60 artists and 60 merchants, which is really awesome.”
READ MORE: Art Walk and Sale kicks off in Williams Lake
On Thursday, Aug. 23, those perusing the downtown core will have the opportunity to see several of the artists creating their art on the streets of Williams Lake for a special Artist Day.
“I try to get the artists to come out and kind of do their thing as often as we can possibly can,” said Dye in regards to the Artist Day on the Walk. “However, we usually pick one day of the Art Walk where we promote the artists to get out there and paint, or we ask some of the potters to do some potting.
“It’s a fun day for the artists and it is certainly a fun day for the merchants and the people who are out and about. It gives the public an opportunity to see how the artists create their stuff.”
One of the artists Dye is expecting to see out and about next week is Harvey Elsworth Overton.
“The reception from the artists has been quite great this year and it usually is,” said Dye. “Harvey Overton in particular, who is here from Australia, really loves to get out and paint an awful lot.”
Overton, whose art is being featured at the Mulberry Lane Gift Studio, started painting from an early age.
Historic painters Sonia Cornwall and Vivien Cowan, respectively, were two of Overton’s mentors who pushed and encouraged him to pursue his passion for the arts.
As mentioned by Dye, Overton currently splits his time between Williams Lake and Australia. Nonetheless, he is reportedly very eager to continue to showcase his artwork over the course of the next few weeks.
Izaria Bowe, one of the newcomers to the Art Walk and Sale this year, is a seventh-generation citizen of Williams Lake, who primarily likes to focus on edgy animal portraits.
Graduating from Lake City Secondary in 2017, Bowe, who has lived in the community for nearly her entire life, recently completed her first year of studying fine arts at Thompson Rivers University.
Her artwork is currently being showcased at the Cariboo Dental Clinic.
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