Side Street Studio Blog | The best art that B.C. can offer
About This Site
Side Street Studio in Oak Bay Village and now Humboldt Street, Victoria, has been selling the work of British Columbia artists for over 25 years. Side Street Studio is family owned and has the support of five highly trained and helpful staff. We are commited to providing a showcase for the best pottery, jewellery, wood, glass art, textiles, cards & books, carvings, West Coast photography & art prints and special Gifts that B.C. can offer. more...
Charles Noel van Sandwyk wrote, “I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1966. In 1977 I immigrated with my family to Vancouver, Canada.
AFFAIRS OF THE HEART BOOK
By the early 1980s I was selling my drawings and watercolors in a style reminiscent of the old prints and paintings which hung in my family home.
I studied graphic design at the Capilano College art programme in North Vancouver.
FAIRY MARKET
Upon completion in 1986, the wanderlust of younger years sent me travelling to the South Pacific. I discovered the Fiji Islands, and fell in love with a remote island and its inhabitants. I began to divide my time equally between Vancouver and Fiji, leasing land from the neighboring family and building for myself a simple home of grass thatch, in the traditional island style.
MR RABBITS CHRISTMAS WISH
I then settled into a pleasurable routine of winter seasons in Fiji filled with painting and writing, the results of which I brought back to Canada each summer and prepared for exhibition and publication each autumn.
AFTER GLOW FAIRIES BOOK
My watercolors, etchings and books are now collected across North America and in Europe. The National Library of Canada has maintained archives on my work since 1986. I continue to divide my time between Vancouver and my beloved Fiji.
You can obtain Charles Van Sandwyck’s magnificent books and cards at http://www.sidestreetstudio.com/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=8036.
MR RABBITS "SYMPHONY OF NATURE" BOOK
Danny & Mary wrote: Our business started as a hobby in New Zealand in 1996. Three countries later, it has developed into a thriving cottage industry in Victoria, BC. 
We have numerous titles, to which we are adding all the time, that we carry as a regular line.
These include sketchbooks, notebooks, diaries, gratitude journals, romantic books for lovers, guest books, photo albums and more. As well, we do unique one-off projects, either of our own creation or as special commissions.
We are professional, full-time artisans, and we have exhibited at numerous fairs, craft shows and festivals including: Bastion Square Festival of the Arts, Filberg Festival, Circle Craft, Out of Hand, Creative Chaos, Butterdome, Touch of Saltspring, Gifts for Myself and Others, Kris Kringle and Victoria Pride Festival. Our work can also be found in a small selection of finer galleries and gift shops such as Side Street Studio.
In today’s world, books are easy and cheap to mass-produce. It’s much more efficient than when it was done by hand . . . but in that efficiency, we have lost something. A mechanically produced book may look nice and be lovely to read, but it contains nothing of the person who made it.
When an artist creates, their creation acquires just a little of their essence, their spirit, their soul. So it is when we design and hand-bind a book. Each book has just a little of us in it, and that sharing of ourselves enriches us as well as the recipient. 
Danny & Mary
Those Great Little Books