{"id":15720,"date":"2018-04-04T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=15720"},"modified":"2018-04-09T08:50:46","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T15:50:46","slug":"local-artist-mitchell-villa-explores-new-styles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2018\/04\/04\/local-artist-mitchell-villa-explores-new-styles\/","title":{"rendered":"Local artist Mitchell Villa explores new styles"},"content":{"rendered":"

2018 saw the end of an era for local painter Mitchell Villa as he switched from acrylic paints to oil. His current exhibit, Epilogue<\/i>, at Fortune Gallery, pays tribute to his bright and vibrant acrylic work as he transitions to his new medium. Villa says that the change is more practical than anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my acrylics were just drying so quickly,\u201d he says. \u201cAcrylic has a way faster dry time than oil, so to be able to come back the next morning and the paint isn\u2019t all dry, or come back a couple days later\u2026 my paint is still good to be working with. I just found I was kind of limited with what I could do with acrylic paint. There\u2019s a lot more possibilities with oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those possibilities is the opportunity to work on multiple pieces at once. Currently, Villa has three on the go.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Local artist Mitchell Villa working on one of his pieces (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen a painting is wet all over,\u201d he says, \u201cit\u2019s nice to jump over and switch out to something different.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while Villa is switching his painting materials, the bright colours and pop-art vibe he brings to his work is here to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will definitely be the same style I\u2019ve always painted in,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it will just be oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what can patrons expect from Villa\u2019s acrylic send off? A blend of local street scenes and quirky portraits; the ways in which these pieces came to fruition are as unique as the works themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of street scenes of Victoria, and that was just for one show, so I did a run of that. And then all my other stuff is just kind of inspired from daily life,\u201d he says, adding that while he admits it sounds clich\u00e9, \u201cit\u2019s just kind of the things that go in have a tendency to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there is definite stylistic cohesion between his pieces, Villa says he prefers painting people to buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely prefer doing figurative work,\u201d he says. \u201cBuildings are a little boring, but every once in a while it breaks it up. I did the Chinatown<\/i> piece first, and that was just because I had never done a cityscape before, so I just kind of wanted to try it\u2026 People were pretty into it, so I did a full series.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to his older acrylic works, Epilogue<\/i> also sees the debut of three new-to-Victoria pieces: Motel<\/i>, Gastown 1971<\/i>, <\/i>and Hell Hounds<\/i>. Villa admits he has a soft spot for Motel <\/i>and the mental images it evokes because he\u2019s \u201cdrawn to old, dingy hotels and things like that.\u201d As for Hell Hounds<\/i>, he says that it came together with ease, despite its intricate detailing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was actually super quick because I had the idea and was just able to execute it really quickly,\u201d Villa says. \u201cThe painting process wasn\u2019t that long at all. I think it was only like two weeks or a week and a half or something to do those dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Epilogue
\n<\/i>Until Monday, April 16
\nVarious days and times, Fortune Gallery
\nfortunegallery.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2018 saw the end of an era for local painter Mitchell Villa as he switched from acrylic paints to oil. His current exhibit, Epilogue, at Fortune Gallery, pays tribute to his bright and vibrant acrylic work as he transitions to his new medium. Villa says that the change is more practical than anything. \u201cAll my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,210],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-april-4-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15723,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15720\/revisions\/15723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}