Located at 1046 Hamilton, in funky district of Yaletown in downtown Vancouver, there’s Raw Canvas art house. It used to be a cafe and started out as such one some time at the end of summer last year. Now it has changed its status a bit. Paige Farraci, the owner of the place, says: …we have our liquor license now so we prefer to call it an art house or lounge rather cafe. Small details but we are trying to get out of that stereotype and get people into our organic wine list.
Its character is best described on the website www.raw-canvas.com where we read:
Take a deep breath, sit down, make yourself at home. Choose from our dynamic selection of handcrafted tapas and earth-friendly wines. If the mood strikes, grab a smock and make your way into the painting pit. Buy a blank canvas, we will provide the paint, brushes and everything you’ll need to free your inner artist. Our crew will provide encouragement, insight and inspiration to aid you throughout your creative journey. We are the renaissance; art, food, wine, music, poetry, love, community.
Ground floor location and easy access from pretty busy street is more than inviting. Then we see a place divided into two parts – restaurant-like environment and, after a few steps to the back, there’s a real art studio, mostly for painters. But how about grabbing a camera and pretending that we are in the (very well lit) photo studio. Or even better – how about setting a perfect theatre stage right there. The environment of easels, floor splashed with different colours of paint and all painters’ materials collected along the walls can also serve as a perfect place for poetry reading. All the painting materials can be yours. For a small fee you can get a raw canvas, paints, brushes, use the easels and all the tools necessary to let your creativity released on the spur of the moment. No problem if you work around and you’re on the lunch break, you can always come back to it at the moment you like, they stay open until late hours.
A main window stage set up for the musicians at Raw Canvas art house, Vancouver’s Yaletown.
By the large window, there’s enough room to set up a perfect stage for a small band of even 4 people who can bring their own instruments and make music – rehearsing, jamming or just playing an improvised concert. And you can be a performer, actor, painter, musician or art instructor when teaching others how to make drawings, sketches or photography. There are many people walking up and down the busy street and after a while, when taking a peak through the window, they decide to enter and join the people already there. Some of them join already set up musicians to jam during the open mic event.
Iared, originally from Ethiopia, who came to Vancouver after studying art in Paris, France, made this painting in less than an hour.
It’s a nice place for everyone who can also come to meet other people, discuss many topics and get immersion in art as a performer or just an attender. Fresh and home-made organic food and served drinks can stop everyone at that place at least for a short moment. Then you fall in love with the place and its atmosphere – and come back again, for sure!
Studio for paint artists.
Finished art and an easel waiting for a new artist, Raw Canvas art house, Vancouver.
