William Percival Weston was trained in Britain and came to Canada in 1909, accepting a teaching position in Vancouver. In 1914, he accepted the post of art master at the Provincial Normal School. There he taught the province’s art teachers until his retirement in 1946, after which he devoted himself solely to his painting. The landscape of British Columbia was to become Weston’s major focus for most of his career. His images are generally focused on the dramatic vistas, paying particular attention to the mountains and trees of the region. In this sense, The White Church, Vancouver Island is an unusual canvas for Weston. Turning to a church and the surrounding landscape suggests a sense of spirituality that is more usually expressed in his depictions of the mountainous landscape of BC’s coast.

The present canvas was likely painted in 1941, perhaps while Weston was teaching summer school in Victoria. At this time, he likely painted in the evenings or on weekends, between his classes, and the canvas may have been finished at his home studio in Vancouver (note the inscription on verso with his home address). His teaching duties made it less possible for him to explore the rugged coastal landscape and he turned his attention to a church, likely St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, in the Victoria region.[1] What is striking about the composition is the care with which Weston has revealed his subject. The church is partially hidden behind a dramatic screen of trees, possibly Garry oaks, and some smaller evergreens. The rectilinear architecture of the church is contrasted with the sinuous forms of the tree trunks. The view through these trees slows our visual entrance into the composition.

Weston has also been deliberate in his colour choices. He contrasts the brilliant white of the church with its darker roof and the greens and browns of the nearby trees. The grasses around the building are tinged with both green and orange, suggesting the dryness of late summer on the coast. Our progress towards the church is carefully measured by the strong shadows throughout the composition and the curve of the road, which leads the eye into the pictorial space. The dominance of the church is implied by the shift of colour to white, which appears nowhere else in the picture. Even the clouds in the sky are tinged blue in order to highlight the white church. Weston’s use of shadow throughout the composition also helps to define the recession into space.

The White Church, Vancouver Island is an example of Weston altering his usual approach to a subject. His images often include single trees silhouetted against a striking landscape background with mountains and sea. Here, Weston has given himself a distinctly different challenge. The careful placement of all the elements—the various trees and bushes, the church, the fence and even the scattering of gravestones—serves to define the spatial depths of the composition: the background of the work—distant hills and a cloud-filled sky above—is subdued in tone, allowing the church and trees in the fore and middle grounds to emerge strongly.

This work reveals a different side of Weston as an artist. His repeated showing of the canvas in exhibitions in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary suggests that he was pleased with the composition. Notably, the painting was also included in his first retrospective, held at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1946. The White Church, Vancouver Island clearly demonstrates Weston’s strengths as a painter. Always willing to explore the varied use of colour, design and texture, Weston brings his own vision and understanding to the task of depicting the riches of the landscape of his adopted province.

We thank Ian M. Thom, Senior Curator—Historical at the Vancouver Art Gallery from 1988 to 2018, for contributing the above essay. Thom is the author of W.P. Weston, published in 1980.

1. St. Stephen’s Anglican Church and Cemetery are located at 7921 St. Stephen Road, Saanichton, BC.