Keith Hiscock: Victor Lotto

Victor Lotto: To celebrate the concept, I made an advance visit to the home and studio of Victor Lotto. In addition to a lifetime of gainful employment, parenting three sons, and travelling the world, Lotto has since childhood made time for painting. With his wife, Nicky, he shares a home filled with art by those he admires Jack Reid, Owen Goward, Brian Travers-Smith, Allan Edwards, Harry Heine and Keith Hiscock to name a few. We repaired for a chat in his basement studio which opens out onto the backyard. , according to Times Colonist. In telling the tale of his extraordinarily varied career, Lotto mentioned a few positions he held with the Canadian government. Early on he was a junior consular officer in Beirut, travelling to Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Baghdad. He came back to reality with a posting to Detroit. Then, he and his wife and first son were based in Milan. I got to do a little painting and see an awful lot of Italy, he recalled. I had the opportunity to meet Jean Paul Riopelle when he had a show in Milan and I was acting consul general. We had a long chat and, of course, I gave him advice in how to paint, he chuckled. The 12th Oak Bay Artists Studio Tour takes place this weekend, a show that gives you a chance to visit artists not represented by commercial galleries. Twenty-seven artists welcome you into their studios in many cases in their homes. This way of doing things is an old and honourable Victoria tradition. Lotto, born in Toronto in 1935, was selected by his elementary-school teacher for classes at the Art Gallery of Ontario. At Jarvis Collegiate he edited the school magazine and went on to the University of Toronto. While studying political science and economic history there, he also painted with Aba Bayefsky and worked with Douglas Duncan at the legendary Picture Loan Society. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.