Baywest brings personal touch to show homes
Emerging Artists program adorns presentation spaces with local artwork
People who have explored the most recent show homes by Baywest Homes have likely noticed something different about the presentation of these spaces.
In an effort to both provide a valuable new platform for Calgary area artists, and create a more authentic feeling in the homes it’s showcasing, Baywest is featuring original art.
This includes its new show home in the Okotoks community of Ranchers’ Rise.
“Art can have an impact on our living space and makes our lives joyful and creates the atmosphere that we want to live in, which is personable to us,” says Sandi Serr, Baywest’s manager of marketing.
In autumn of 2017, the builder unveiled its Emerging Artists program. While planning a new show home, Baywest reaches out through its social media platforms, welcoming submissions of paintings and/or drawings from Calgary area artists.
The program debuted with the Hamelin show home, which opened in the southeast Calgary community of Cranston’s Riverstone late last year.
The artists’ work is expected to meet a criteria set out by the builder, so that the pieces line up with the theme of the home.
Through a blind selection process, in which the names of the artists are concealed, the interior designer picks the artists with pieces that best match what they need.
“The Emerging Artists Program helps artists bridge the gap from emerging to established and allows us to feature our very own Calgary artists, which becomes more personal,” Serr says.
For the Weston, a 2,452-squarefoot move-up model in Ranchers’ Rise, Baywest asked for artwork in a modern country, two-toned blue theme.
Its walls display pieces by Terri Heinrichs and Doug Farries.
“I’m really honoured to be part of the program,” says Heinrichs, who has been a professional artist in Calgary for 15 years. “I think it’s a fantastic idea that Baywest had to actually include original art.
“(It) brings a connection between the home itself and the community,” she says, adding that it “gives us the opportunity to be seen, and the art itself to express their vision for the space.
“I’m really pleased to be able to be a part of that.”
Heinrichs is presently working on a series she calls Vivid Impressions, in which she uses oil paints to focus on scenery, nature, and sunsets, portraying them in a brighter colour than they are typically seen.
“What we do, for the most part, is a solitary profession,” Heinrichs says.
“We’re home or in our studios and sometimes don’t really get out to see people very often. So being able to put our artwork out before the public is really our best option for getting people to purchase new pieces. If they don’t see it, then they’re not going to buy it.
“This is another format other than shows or galleries to get our art in front of people and it’s a real privilege to be able to do that.”
Farries also likes the opportunity.
“I thought it was a good idea,” he adds. “It’s good for the artists, but I think it’s also good for people buying homes, just to get into the whole art scene.”
Farries’ work displayed in the Weston is from a series he did based around the Glenmore Reservoir. As for Heinrichs, one of the works is of the Camels Mountain at Rogers Pass, and the other is from a shelter belt on the Prairies.
People interested in receiving updates from Baywest on when and what it needs from its next art submission can reach out to the builder and ask to join its database of artists.
Art can have an impact on our living space and makes our lives joyful and creates the atmosphere that we want to live in, which is personable to us.