Venus Sophia has two art gallery areas.  I want to share about the back gallery.

The Forest of Light series is a very rich and deep experience of quietness, light and finding the path into the forest.  It opens up a timeless memory of moments when one has found the soltane and solace of light in the forest.  It washes one over with the rising and the setting of the golden light.  Whether it be rays of light that shine poetically through branches bringing shadows and choreography or whether it is a wash of light that brings clarity to the path, this series can’t be missed.

Dianne has given a very generous and unique opportunity to all of us by offering her collection at 50% off on this Victoria Day and for one full week.  I was surprised by her suggestion and delighted at the opportunity for all of us to take a little of the forest home with us.

How lovely to support a local artist, Dianne Ostoich, and her work.

Venus Sophia Tea Room has had an amazing response from every age group and genre of life.  It is a pearl in the rough and an oasis in a busy life.  The Tea Room went from conception into presence and she is, indeed, a lovely sight to behold.  The whitewash of limestone ridge walls and the radiance of the chandeliers offers a colour that holds within it peacefulness.  The hand-sewn cushions of the favourite chairs and the the shabby chic colour of the wooden chairs welcomes comfort and places to rest.

The response has been tremendous….and also the ability to continue to respond has been heartwarming.  For, indeed, the tearoom does not exist for itself.  It has opened to create a living space to enter into alone or with others….maybe like our own souls.  It is a place by the water’s edge that beckons reflection.  It is a place that inspires creativity.  It is a sanctuary that allows one to find peace.

Venus Sophia Tea Room has appeared in the full splendour of an inner beauty that takes one’s breath away for she is gentle, yet dignified.  Venus Sophia, bearer of radiating love, inner beauty and a living wisdom, is a place that is timeless, yet can be placed in context by an experience, or a story, or a moment while drinking tea.

Whether one goes inside of the tea room or one’s self, there is certainly a beauty to behold, a love to discover and a wisdom to be lived.  The tea room is not asking for a response, per se, but instead allowing one to find the ability to respond to such an unexpected place and experience.

We await your presence and will delight in the prospect of sharing a moment together in a place unlike any other where eloquence and elegance greet you at the door and wave goodbye at your leaving….smiling at the knowing you will return, to a place called home, to a place known as one’s heart and soul, to a place called Venus Sophia Tea Room.

Kettle’s on and the door is always open……..see you soon.

We are so excited about our May showings.  We have our front and back galleries and in each one of them, there is an amazing sight to behold. Please join us in welcoming Laurie Rae Baxter and Dianne Ostoich.

Laurie Rae Baxter has her photography series called Havana Angels.  The sepia photographs of the stone statuary are absolutely stunning. It is the first time she is showing her Havana Angels series and we are so privileged.

All prints are sold unframed.  They are digital inkjet prints made on archivel German Rag Paper.  And a book is in the gallery for your convenience and information.  Sit down in the Venus Sophia Tea Room Gallery area, enjoy a nice pot of tea and enjoy gazing into this exquisite work of art.

Laurie Rae Baxter is a professor at the University of Victoria and lives in North Saanich, BC where her Dolphin Road Studio is located.

Dianne Ostoich has her show in the back gallery which we call The Forests of Light.  All pieces are for sale and take you to a place that allows you to experience the true spirit of the West Coast rainforests.

Dianne was born and raised in Vancouver, BC, in the lap of those rainforests.  Her beginning years were spent exploring the myriad paths winding through the woods where she developed a strong love of trees.  That love radiates from her work.  Dianne, who studied at Langara College, Vancouver School of Art and University of BC, works with oil paints on canvas and with oil pastels on rag paper.  She likes to paint large canvases reflecting the size of her subject matter, but she also paints vignettes which are still able to evoke the majesty of the forest.  Dianne paints the serenity and peacefulness that nature offers us.  She invites the viewer into the canvas to walk down the pathways.  She likes especially the play of light and dark, sunlight and shadow.  As you stroll down the paths of her work you feel the heat of the sun and the coolness of the shadows.  Shafts of sunlight filter through dense groves of evergreens.  The dance of dappled light and deep shadows creates an almost abstract pattern.

Dianne has been involved with the art world for the past thirty years.  In the mid seventies, she co-founded Crown Lithographic Printers in Vancouver which was a custom printing house dedicated to producing high quality hand-pulled original lithographs.  Working in close collaboration with such artists as Jack Shadbolt, Leslie Poole, Takao Tanabe and the Haida artist Bill Reid, to name but a few, was a wonderful experience giving insight as to how each individual artist approached their art.

In the mid-eighties, she opened a gallery in conjunction with the print shop featuring local artists as well as her own work.  After running the gallery for 15 years, he demand of her work made it difficult to manage both.  Now, she happily concentrates solely on her painting.

Her works are in many private and corporate collections as well as permanent collections in universities and public museums.

We look forward to seeing you in the Gallery and Tea Room.

Beauty

Beauty dwells in unseen places
Like a breeze within the quivering leaves.
She smiles from delicate, rounded buds
of rose and purple spiraling lupines,
Shimmering in the dark night sky
in her royal garment of wisdom.

Deep within her place of dwelling
Lies a rich and swelling wellspring
Where virgin lilies transform
And blossoming roses unfold
With overflowing fragrances filling the soul.

Opening the door of the quiet interior
Peace prevails and beckons gently
Every room reveals the substance, hidden deep within the soul,
Venus Sophia Tea Room creates a vessel
Where beauty radiates for the I to behold.

Venus Sophia Tea Room

Open Daily 9:30 – 6 p.m.

To be at peace.  To live in peace.  To find peace. To experience peacefulness.

Venus Sophia Tea Room, by nature, is committed to the premise that where there is genuine interest experienced, cultivated and pursued there is the potential for friendship to be discovered and unfolded one lovely layer or petal at a time.  And where there is friendship, peace can be found, full and inviting.

And in that moment of peace-full-ness, there is the possibility to live a new life, to cultivate a new culture full of being at peace, living in peace, finding peace and experiencing peace from the inside out, in the present moment.  Within the inner sanctuary of Venus Sophia Tea Room, the alchemy of refinement can begin to happen as the radiance of an inner beauty, enrobed by the presence of a living wisdom, walks hand in hand in  the pureness of common intention and genuine interest.  For it is here that a radiance as bright as the sun and as pure as the molten sea of gold rays out filling the space with the warmth of friendship and the lightness of joy, and love is born into the world of every day life.

A love that quickens the way we see, the way we hear, the way we act–a substance that turns an ordinary day or moment into an extraordinary one.  An essence that fills our lungs with song and our hearts with compassion.  “Love makes the world go round” isn’t about dizziness or splendour, it is about embodying and living the love in such a way that it moves the world forward in its lovely choreography of orbiting and becoming.

And in the centre of that twirling, an entirely new space in the middle of the vortex opens called life.  And it is within this living environment, like the inside of a seed, or the inside of a universe, yet on Earth,  where the presence of an inner beauty, a living wisdom, a radiating love and a new culture of peace can be born.

Venus Sophia Tea Room holds open that quiet space in the midst of busy life to be able to find a place with others, while drinking tea, to experience the potential of the world in which we live, to experience the alchemy of refinement within ourselves, and to have an opportunity to move it all forward in new and imaginative, inspired and intuitively alive ways…one heartbeat and one breath at a time.

Changing traditional ritual into living presence.

The kettle’s on, come for tea.

Jill,

It was a pleasure to meet and talk with you yesterday. You may remember I visited your beautiful tea room with my mom, Dolly, and took a bunch of wonderful photos. I posted a feature article and review of Venus Sophia on my blog and thought you may like to read it.

http://snackingsquirrel.blogspot.com/2010/05/venus-sophia.html

Thank you for your beautiful energy and enlightening conversation!

Sincerely,
Kelsey Taylor

TODAY WILL BE A WONDERFUL DAY AT THE TEA ROOM.

WE WILL BE HAVING LOTS OF MUSIC!

FROM 1 TO 3 P.M. SATORI STRINGS WILL BE PLAYING CLASSICAL AND CELTIC.  FIND THEIR BIOS BELOW.

AND FROM 4 TO 6 P.M. SWING ON BY WILL BE HERE WITH THEIR SMOOTH TUNES.

LOVELY DAY, LOVELY LUNCHES, LOVELY SOUPS AND SALADS, LOVELY TEA AND TEAPOTS, LOVELY ORGANIC COFFEES, AND MOST OF ALL

LOVELY MOTHERS AND FAMILIES!

PLEASE MEET OUR NEW TEA ROOM MUSICIANS….YOU WILL JUST LOVE THEM!

Catheryn Kennedy – Violin/Viola/Voice

A recent graduate from Western Oregon University, Catheryn has moved to Victoria to teach and further pursue her musical education. Catheryn was the winner of Western Oregon University’s 2008 Concerto competition, a selected soloist for Festival Chorale Oregon’s 2008 European tour, and has since enjoyed playing with local groups such as the Victoria Children’s Choir and with Vinegar Hill. Catheryn is currently an active member of the Victoria Chamber Orchestra; Civic Orchestra; her string ensemble, Satori Strings; and many others.

Elizabeth Jane Fields – Viola/Violin/Voice

Joining the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra at the age of twelve as a violist, Elizabeth spent the next five years being coached by Toronto Symphony members, among them Daniel Blackman, as well as performing under the direction of world-renowned musicians David Zafer,  Sir Andrew Davis and Joaquin Valdepenas. During this time she performed in the Banff International Youth Orchestra Festival, and was presented with the Young Artists Award by the Oakville Symphony Orchestra. After studying classical voice with Norma Burrowes, Elizabeth moved to Victoria B.C. where she now is a member of and performs with Satori Strings, SheNanigan and Vinegar Hill.

Zachary Taylor – Cello/Bass Viol

Zachary Taylor has recently finished studying cello at Western Oregon University. He has been trained in various styles, with a focus on classical and early music. He was the winner of Western’s concerto competition in 2007 with the Saint-Saens concerto in A minor, and has toured Germany with the Oregon Festival Chorale as a chamber musician premiering “Songs of the Earth” by Hal Eastburn in 2008. He has been involved in several ensembles since moving to Victoria, including the Civic Orchestra of Victoria, the Victoria Chamber Orchestra, the Sooke Philharmonic, Vinegar Hill, and is also a member of the Satori Strings Ensemble.

VENUS SOPHIA TEA ROOM GIFT CERTIFICATES AND TEA

ARE AVAILABLE FOR WONDERFUL MOTHER’S DAY PRESENTS.

WHY NOT SPEND A LOVELY MOMENT WITH US ON MOTHER’S DAY, MAY 9.

WHAT BETTER COMBINATION–MOTHERS AND TEA.

SWING ON BY WILL BE PLAYING LOVELY MUSIC FROM 4 TO 6 P.M.

RESERVATIONS ACCEPTED–250-590-3953.

INTERESTED IN SUPPORTING US?

We’ve just found out that it is the time of year when Victoria News is counting ballots for:  Best Place for Afternoon Tea.

Wouldn’t it be fun if we suddenly appeared on their list in our first year!

You can access the ballot count online at www.vicnews.com.  Scroll down, keeping an eye on the right side of the page until you reach Cast Your Vote.  It is also available by mail-in ballot form through the newspaper.  The deadline is April 30th.

If you love us, won’t you vote for us!

Thanks a million,

Jill and Rod

Venus Sophia Tea Room.

When you walk through “the gate of harmonious interest” in Victoria’s Chinatown and down the sidewalk, you will come upon a place that has an awning with lace.  Yes, it is Venus Sophia Tea Room.

And if you stand by and quietly listen, many thoughts are spoken when it is found and seen.  On the one hand, someone will say “this is funny for Chinatown,” or “oh a tea room!”  Others will become curious, some just looking in through the doors, and many will cross over the threshold and enter into this lovely environment presenting the awning with lace.

Nothing quite funny about any of this really.  A tea room on the street of Chinatown is a place that opens its windows into the world at large.  Chinatown feels like the international street in Victoria, and what better place to sell teas from around the world.   We are not a British tea room or any particularly placed tea room, we are a space in and out of time, in and out of location bearing the awning with lace.

It is interesting to watch though.  For those who do cross over the threshold into this prepared space, something happens…a sense of something remembered, or quickened, or even loved.  The tea room is perfectly placed to be part of the world at large, to be part of the international street of Chinatown, to be part of the small businesses on the block, and to bring tea that has been grown around the world into a pot of boiling water for many to enjoy.  The coffee beans, as well, harken from afar and in our own way, we are partaking in an ancient ritual of tea drinking, some say, began in China.  We are also creating opportunities for all of us to sit down inwardly and outwardly to have a nice cup of organic tea supporting a way of growing without chemicals and supporting a way of life by slowing down and smelling the tea…at Venus Sophia Tea Room the place featuring the awning with lace…..we are perfectly placed in our artistic, worldwide, imaginative and sunny view of the world…..won’t you join us?