Most of the art today is completed behind closed doors, perfected in studios where we can’t see it being created. That makes what happens at West Vancouver’s Harmony Arts Festival each summer such a rarity: amid all its outdoor concerts and screenings, the event has been building a strong following for its art demos and hands-on workshops with well-known local and visiting names. And the programs are often as much a novelty for the artists as for the onlookers.

Landscape painter Brian Romer, who is used to working en plein air—and alone—admits that his first demonstration at the fest, five years ago, was “a very scary experience”. “You’re used to focusing so much on your painting, and when you all of a sudden have 20 people sitting and watching you and asking questions, it makes it harder to focus,” says the author of vivid acrylic impressions of the West Coast’s rocky cliffs, silhouetted arbutus trees, and shifting skies and seas, speaking from his home on the Sunshine Coast.

“I think it’s kind of nice because it sort of puts you on the spot and it makes you do something a little different or daring to see if it works. And if it doesn’t work, I just don’t point it out,” he adds with a laugh.

Fortunately for Romer, who works his magic out on Ambleside Pier at 5 p.m. on August 9, he can paint fast, completing an entire work in front of his audience’s eyes in an hour or two. But as with the rest of the fest’s ArtSpeaks and ArtDemos series in and around the big tent by the Ferry Building Gallery, don’t expect a lecture. “I’m self-taught and I have never had any lessons, so a lot of the time I don’t know what I’m doing—or I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” explains the modest Romer. “Because I really do it my own way.”

Ruth Payne, visual-arts coordinator at the Ferry Building Gallery and organizer of the demos during the festival (which runs from tomorrow [July 31] to August 9), says the varied program draws everyone from emerging artists to people who “just want to get their hands dirty and have fun”.

The roster this year includes prominent local painter Robert Genn, who participates in the Plein Air Painters demonstration on Saturday (August 1) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; artist and architect Alfonso Tejada, who leads a hands-on Sketching With Passion workshop on Sunday (August 2) at 4 p.m.; and West Vancouver artist Sharon Christian, who shows how to make sculptures out of recycled materials on Tuesday (August 4) at noon. “There really is something for everybody—they can either get in there and do it or you can sit and learn what giclée printing is about,” says Payne, adding that many of the artists doing demonstrations will also show up in Harmony’s Studio Tours, around West Van August 2 and 9. (Maps and more are at www.harmonyarts.ca/.)

For fans of outdoor painting, the most fun will be had at next Saturday’s (August 8) Grand Prix Plein Air Challenge, which launched last year and is expected to draw up to 50 people to participate in a three-hour competition for prizes. Thanks to the Harmony fest’s West Van setting, the alfresco artists will have no shortage of inspiration. “They can set up anywhere in the surrounding area,” says Payne. “They have the sailing club, Ambleside Pier, the Lions Gate Bridge—this is the most beautiful place on the planet.”