This painting will be available at my opening reception this Saturday, Nov. 30, starting at 4:00 pm.

"Doll Face"
acrylic on canvas,  custom white wooden frame
30" X 40"
$950

by Brenda Anderson, Langley Times
Langley painter Susan Galick will open the doors to her new Fort Langley live-work studio with an open house on Nov. 30.

Beginning at 4 p.m. the reception will be open to the public, who are invited to tour the entire space — upstairs and down — and enjoy wine, punch and appetizers.

The studio, located in Bedford Landing’s Flat Iron Building, is  exactly what Galick has been waiting for since the riverside development was “just an empty chunk of land.”

“It’s been a dream of mine to have my own little retail and live-in space,” said Galick.

Instead of purchasing a studio, however, Galick moved into a condo with a view of the Fraser River. But the Flat Iron Building — home now to a number of artists’ studios — seemed to call to her.

When a unit became available, Galick thought it would be the perfect opportunity to have a look, realize it wasn’t everything she’d built it up to be in her mind, and be done with it.

“I thought, when I walk in that door I will finally get it out of my head,” said Galick.

“I fell in love with it five feet in the door.

“I looked at my realtor and said, ‘Uh, oh.’”

The building, filled with places for artists and retailers to live and work in one spot, “is such a wonderful concept,” said the artist.

“Bedford Landing is like a mini Granville Island, with its artistic atmosphere. It’s really busy.”

Galick plans to open her studio-gallery to the public three weeks of every month.

The fourth week, the artist plans to spend at her Beach Box studio in Sooke, on Vancouver Island.

Although she has not yet set them, the Fort Langley gallery’s hours will be regular, Galick promised, noting how frustrating it can be for visitors to make a trip out to the Valley, only to discover their destination is arbitrarily closed.

Working out of a small 200-square-foot space, Galick will sell her own, original artwork — colourful works, painted in a modern impressionist style — as well as six different types of soap from Fort Langley Soapworks.

A former soap maker herself, Galick is happy to let someone else take over, but she did paint the image of the Fort-to-Fort Trail which graces the bars’ labels, she said.

Susan Galick Fine Art Studio/Gallery opening reception will take place on Saturday, Nov. 30, beginning at 4 p.m. at #7 - 23230 Billy Brown Rd. in Fort Langley.