KIANA STANEK
The Nepean Visual Arts Centre is your one-stop shop for all things creative
Calling all art enthusiasts in Ottawa West! Looking to try something new in the neighbourhood to express your creativity? Located within the Nepean Sportsplex at the intersection of Woodroffe Avenue and West Hunt Club Road, the Nepean Visual Arts Centre offers a wide variety of specialty art programs year round for people of all ages.
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The Nepean Sportsplex
The Nepean Sportsplex is a city-owned
community centre in Ottawa West that has offered a huge variety of activities at its
Aquatics, Athletics, Senior, and Visual Arts Centres for over 40 years. This
multi-functional facility has hundreds of recreation programs for people of all
ages, from preschool, children, youth, and families, to adults, seniors, and
inclusive recreation. Among these activities and programs are basketball,
badminton, pickleball, squash, cycling, swimming, aqua fitness, skating, hockey,
curling, strength training, yoga, art, and general interest. In addition, the
Sportsplex hosts more than 60 sporting events, special events, and trade shows
every year. The City of Ottawa offers recreational program eGuides that
detail all of their available programs, including descriptions, ages, fees, times, and
registration information. This is also where you will find classes offered at
the Nepean Visual Arts Centre.
The Nepean Visual Arts Centre
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Nestled in the Nepean Sportsplex is the Nepean Visual Arts Centre, which has numerous specialty art programs, workshops, events, and camps for children, youth, and adults. The Centre has 5 specialty studios to hold their classes and events, each of which have ample space, lighting, and equipment. The activities are available at various times throughout the year on a seasonal basis, running from a single workshop to 10 classes. They are all taught by highly talented, skilled, and experienced instructors from various artistic backgrounds, including painting, pottery, illustration, sculpture, photography, and theatre. With plenty of parking and accessibility, the Centre is a great place to express your creativity with your friends, family, or independently.
Here’s what they offer:
- Drawing (pencil, pastel, and charcoal)
- Painting (acrylic, oil, and water colour)
- Pottery (wheel throwing and hand building)
- Mixed media
- Other (art journaling and cartooning and comics)
For more information about the art programs available at the Nepean Visual Arts Centre, click here!
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What the Nepean Sportsplex and Visual Arts Centre mean to me
The Sportsplex and Visual Arts Centre will forever have a special place in my heart. My involvement with the community centre dates back to when I was about 4 years old. I took figuring skating lessons at the Sportsplex every Saturday, and then painting classes at the Arts Centre on Sunday for a good portion of my younger childhood. For many years, my parents and I had a very consistent weekend schedule:
My mom would take me to my skating lessons, bearing through sitting on the cold, plastic seats of the arena for an hour to cheer me on, then reward us with a nice, warm lunch. Nearly every Saturday, we would go to Al’s Diner after my class, where a hot chocolate with loads of whipped cream and a club sandwich awaited. On Sundays, it was my dad who brought me to my art classes and patiently waited in the quiet lobby surrounded by beautiful artwork while I created my mini-master pieces, and the day often ended at Quiznos. As you can probably tell, art and food were all I needed to keep me happy as a child, and that still holds very true today as an adult. :)
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Fast forward over a decade later, and I'm back at my childhood community centre this past fall to take adult landscape painting classes with my mom. Aside from the occasional Paint Nite, it had been so long since I had done a painting, so I was very happy to have this to look forward to every week. One of the most surprising yet useful things I learned in this class was how to use and mix paint properly! Unlike my child painting classes, we didn't use the standard rainbow colours for our palettes. In this class, we mixed very rich, deep, beautiful acrylic paints with unique names, such as Alizarin Crimson, Phthalocyanine Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Hooker’s Green, Cadmium Yellow, and Burnt Sienna. Of course, I also learned many helpful techniques to make my paintings come to life from our instructor, Blair Paul. He is a very well educated and incredibly talented artist, who provided us with guidance and tips, while also allowing us the freedom to be as creative as we wanted. His personal work ranges from landscapes, horizons, frontiers, water colours, collages, mixed media, and more.
Here are some progressive photos of one of the paintings I am most proud of:
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Regardless of your age and skill level, I guarantee you will find something at the Nepean Visual Arts Centre that will peak your interest and bring out your inner artist. If you haven't already clicked on the link to their website above, what are you waiting for? Stop reading and scroll back up!
I would love to hear about your thoughts and experiences with the Nepean Sportsplex and Visual Arts Centre. Please feel free to send me a message below. :)