Memberships coming due

Just a reminder that most Visual Arts Brampton memberships expire tomorrow. You do get a grace period in terms of user fees for the first little bit of the year, but it is important to fill out a form, and drop off cash or check for $35 to renew.

Photos of 2009 Youth Achievement Awards

Congratulations to all the students for participating in the 2009 Youth Achievement Awards. Photos of individual students will be deleted as of Tuesday, January 19, 2009. Download your photos as soon as possible, before they're gone. Group photos, of each award level, will be kept online permanently.

Picasa Web Album Slideshow

2010 Youth Achievement Awards

This weekend is the 2010 Youth Achievement Awards at the Visual Arts Brampton Creative Arts Studios. Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 11 am to 12:30 pm.

All regularly scheduled youth classes are done for 2009. Only those who entered the awards, and their guests, are welcome. Space is limited. Pizza and other snacks will be served.

VAB to be at BBOT via BAC

As previously announced on our events page, Visual Arts Brampton will be participating in the Brampton Board of Trade's January After Business event. Hosted by the Brampton Arts Council, Brampton Arts Council members will be displaying in the Rose Theatre lobby, from 5 to 7 pm.

The BBOT holds After Business networking events monthly. VAB president Keith Moreau often represents the group at these functions; once before we've had a display at the event.

Züm züm

Multiple adult and youth members of Visual Arts Brampton use public transit to get to the studio. They'll no doubt be as thrilled as we are that two Züm roots will run past both the studio and Artway.

What's Züm? Pronounced "zoom", it's upcoming Brampton's commuter bus rapid transit service. With more frequent buses (every 7-10 minutes during peak hours, and 15 minutes off-peak), the expansion of the existing Brampton Transit system makes limited stops, meaning quicker overall travel times.

In September 2010, a route on Queen Street will run between downtown Brampton to York University. More exciting to us are the 2011 and 2012 additions, on Main Street and Steeles Avenue, respectively. Both the VAB studio and Shoppers World (home to Artway and Fridge Front) are at Main and Steeles.

VAB has always prided itself on its transit-friendly location. Near to the Shoppers World transit terminal, there's easy access to a large number of routes on Brampton Transit, Mississauga Transit, and GO Transit. One recent addition to our open studio regulars come by transit from Oakville, riding Mississauga's Hurontario route from the south to the no4rth termini.

Dominos

It appears 1.5 million people watched this before us, but it's worth a view. Mona Lisa, made of dominos. (And if you're thinking, "wow, Mona Lisa's overused", take a look at some of the hundreds of parodies and adaptations in this rapid fire slideshow.) This domino fellow's also done his cat, a 3D dice, you can even request your own portrait. Neat.

WinterLights tonight; Paralympic mascot to attend for VAB

Chinguacousy Park will be a hub of action tonight, filled with activities in celebration of WinterLights. From 6 to 9 pm, come see Christmas trees decorated by local elementary schools, and jumbo postcards by local high schools. Free activities include cookie decorating, crafts, horse and carriage rides, and live entertainment including a Nativity pageant (6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 pm). There's even going to be a reindeer!

Podi, the Canadian Paralympic Committee mascot, will be attending on behalf of Visual Arts Brampton. VAB will be having a Fridge Front Gallery exhibit this coming March, focusing on the Canada's Paralympic team and their sports. Among the guests at tonight's event, Billy Bridges, part of the gold medal-winning 2006 Torino Paralympic sledge hockey team.

The event will be judged as part of Brampton's bid in the annual, national WinterLights competition. WinterLights is run by the same organization as Communities in Bloom. We encourage you to bring non-perishable food items and/or unwrapped new toys for the Peel Regional Police's Toys for Tots.

Complete details can be found at The Brampton News, and The Brampton Guardian.

Podi Paralympic to be at Battalion game, for VAB

Podi, the mascot of the Petro-Canada Paralympic Schools Program, is visiting Brampton this week, courtesy of Visual Arts Brampton. Why VAB? We'll discuss that later.

Podi is the spokescat of a program around since 2003, aiming to raise awareness of Paralympic sport and athletes with a physical disability. Podi was launched in 2007 by the Canadian Paralympic Committee, in the leadup to the Beijing Paralympics, making appearances around the country.

Podi will be appearing:

• Thursday, December 3: Brampton Battalion takes on the Oshawa Generals at the Powerade Centre, from 7 to 10 pm. During the intermission, there's a demonstration of sledge hockey by some local teams; sledge hockey is a Winter Paralympic sport.
• More dates may be announced.
  

In the new year, VAB's students will be creating artwork featuring Canadian Paralympians, for display at Fridge Front Gallery. Many thanks to the Canadian Paralympic Committee for providing the reference photos they will be working from, and letting Podi visit Brampton.

'Tis the Season, John Knox on exhibit at SWB

In today's issue of The Brampton Guardian (the Weekend edition), check out the article on John Knox Christian School's exhibit of Christmas art, "Fridge Front gallery gets festive".

Both the John Knox show and 'Tis the Season, our adult exhibit, went in today. On display are Stan Adams, William Band, Stephanie Czolij, Marguerite Finlayson, Conrad Mieschke, Dolores Miron, Marian Simpson, Warren Simpson, and Jacqueline Veltri.

Both exhibits run until January 4, 2010.

Sunday was Santa's Arrival

This Sunday, Visual Arts Brampton participated in the Santa's Arrival Parade at Shoppers World Brampton. (See photos here.) In total, the Santa's Arrival Parade had an estimated 341 participants marching along, making music, singing songs, dancing, driving go carts, and all kinds of other spirited things. Hundreds upon hundreds of people lined the hallways of Shoppers World to watch this annual tradition. Groups in the parade included Brampton YMCA, Peel Regional Police, Salsa Con Clave, 114th Brampton Sparks, Melody Makers Theatre, Ontario Early Years Centre, 101st Brampton Girl Guides, the Knights of Columbus, Brampton Music Theatre, Traditional Explorers, the Alda Heniss School of Classical Ballet, 1st Brampton Sparks, 5th Brampton Beavers, Marina Soon Dance Group, a soccer troupe, 39th Brampton Sparks/Brownies, and the Chinguacousy Concert Band. The Peel Shrine Club brought their Go Cart Partol around the mall, and the Peel Children's Safety Village drove bikes and two mini-jeeps. Visiting characters included Toy Story 2's Jessie, Frosty the snowman, Dora the Explorer, a gingerbread man, Cinderella and Belle, Spiderman, and Rudolph. Wild Water Kingdom's hippo mascot Hugo also dropped by. Other entertainers included a band, juggler, stiltwalker, and tin soldier. As for us, six Visual Arts Brampton students dressed up with cardstock tube masks on their head, representing a ballerina, ninja, Ms. Claus, Batman, a nutcracker, and Little Bo Peep. (Thanks to volunteer Nick Moreau, the cost for VAB to participate was just $2.26.) VAB also had Star Fox (courtesy of artist Steph Czolij), Brampton Arts Council's Millie the Art Bug, and Pawsitive. Who's Pawsitive? She's the mascot of the Ontario Women's Hockey Association, an adorable and friendly dog meant to promote positive attitudes among among players. VAB discovered Pawsitive on the Brampton Thunder website, over a year ago. We appreciate the OWHA's generousity in lending their beloved pooch to our organization.

Out and About: Wyn Geleynse at the PHC

Brampton artist Bob Posliff just alerted us to the fact Wyn Geleynse's site-specific video work can now been seen on YouTube.

Part of his exhibit "Day In And Day Out With Minor Tragedies", at the Peel Heritage Complex/Art Gallery of Peel, "his latest installation consists of two moving images of eyes on the building’s upper windows. The looped segments were filmed independently and the eyes reversed from their natural placement on the face, resulting in an unsettling dislocation."

Geleynse is considered one of Canada's leading installation artists; a good bio is available through Quartier éphémère.

Check out the press release for more info on times and dates of the projection.

Thanks Peel Heritage Complex!

A big thanks to the Peel Heritage Complex:

Today's Sandra Bell-Lundy event at Shoppers World, just two hours from now (at 1 pm, November 14) will be made audible by a microphone and lectern lent to us from the Complex.

Santa's Arrival Parade, Nov. 22

Visual Arts Brampton is just one of the dozens of community groups participating in the "Santa's Arrival Parade" at Shoppers World Brampton. Held at 11 am, November 22, this fun event does a full, counter-clockwise circuit of the mall.

To celebrate the mall's 40th anniversary, the parade's goal this year was 40 community groups participating. Each year, the variety includes marching bands, characters like Cinderella and Belle, and Santa himself.

It's a nice change, compared to freezing in the cold and the dark, watching the downtown parade.

Pictures of VAB and other participants, previous years, are posted in VAB's Picasa account.

Bookmark contest at Shoppers World, Nov. 22

From the Shoppers World Brampton site:

KIDS BOOKMARK CONTEST
Sunday, November 22nd
12 noon to 4 pm in the Staples Court.

Young artists are invited to show their creativity in designing a bookmark. FREE for children ages 5 to 12 years of age.

Four winners in each age category will be chosen and will have their bookmark professionally printed and sold to raise funds for the Brampton Library Children’s Literacy Initiatives. Prizes include $50 in Shoppers World Brampton gift certificates!

Bookmarks will be judged on Tuesday, November 24th. All submissions will be proudly displayed on our ‘Spread the Words Tree’ in front of Sport Mart for the holiday season!

Between Friends cartoonist to talk in Brampton, Saturday

Between Friends cartoonist to talk in Brampton, Saturday

Welland, Ontario-cartoonist Sandra Bell-Lundy talks about career as part of gallery exhibit

As part of the first gallery showing of her work, Ontario cartoonist Sandra Bell-Lundy visits Brampton's Artway Gallery, to talk to the public about her career and comic. Sandra will be delivering a 30-minute presentation, followed by a short question and answer session.

Following the presentation, Sandra will be available to sign copies of her book, Coffee, Tea and Reality. A limited number of copies will be available to purchase on site.

The event is free to attend.

WHAT:     SYNDICATED CARTOONIST SANDRA BELL-LUNDY 
     TO DELIVER TALK ABOUT HER CAREER AND COMIC

WHERE:    STAPLES COURT           SHOPPERS WORLD BRAMPTON          499 MAIN ST S, BRAMPTON  WHEN:     SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2009           TALK AT 1 PM           Q&A TO FOLLOW AT 1:30 PM

The exhibit "Sandra Bell-Lundy's Between Friends" runs daily at Artway Gallery in Shoppers World Brampton, until November 27, 2009. The exhibit features some of the most memorable and relevant storylines, as chosen by the artist. Along with humourous plot lines about work and family life, the exhibit highlights her serious plots regarding fertility, adoption, and domestic violence.

“Between Friends” is celebrated for its contemporary portrayal of three forty-something women friends, their essence and angst. “Between Friends” runs internationally in over 150 newspapers, through King Features Syndicate. The comic is seen locally in the Toronto Star.

ABOUT ARTWAY AND VAB
A community project of Visual Arts Brampton (VAB), Artway Gallery features monthly exhibits of its members and other area artists. VAB started Artway Gallery in 1997, moving the space to Shoppers World Brampton in 2005. Visual Arts Brampton is a 23-year-old non-profit group, which also runs youth art space Fridge Front Gallery and the World Art Gallery, featuring postcard-sized works.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
SHOW INFORMATION: http://www.visualartsbrampton.com/aw-bf.htm
BETWEEN FRIENDS WEBSITE: http://www.betweenfriendscartoons.com/
BETWEEN FRIENDS BLOG: http://betweenfriendsblog.typepad.com/

Google Street View

View Larger Map

Hey look everybody, it's Visual Arts Brampton Creative Art Studios, as photographed by Google Street View's car, which drived all over the GTA to take pictures.

We don't get much more visible from Bartley Bull, either. How about Google Parking Lot View next?

Glenn McFarlane wins Arts Person of the Year

Congratulations to Glenn McFarlane, president of the Brampton Folk Club, for winning the City of Brampton Arts Person of the Year Award. Nominated previously, Glenn is president and a founding member of the Brampton Folk Club. The Club regularly hold concerts; various times of the year, they perform weekly during the evening at a local church, and weekly at the Rose Theatre's outdoor stage.

The Folk Club is perhaps best known for its Brampton Folk Festival, which ran for many years at Gage Park. The festival attracted audiences from around the province, and top performers from across the country, like Murray McLaughlin, Tanglefoot, and General Store. Unlike many of its large cousins, the event was perpetually free, meaning people not normally exposed to folk music could have a chance to appreciate it.

Visual Arts Brampton president Keith Moreau attended the event, held at the Rose Theatre. Keith was Arts Person in 1992. The event, themed to "Singin' in the Rain", included entertainment, the Corporate Support of the Arts Awards, and Harry Dale Literary Grant for Aspiring Writers. Among the people at Keith's table was a representative of Colony Ford, sponsor of the Art Gallery of Peel.

Keith actually designed the logo of the Brampton Folk Festival, and his son Nick designed the programme multiple years. One group compilation album featured Keith's coloured pencil artwork on the cover, the winner of a group-wide competition. McFarlane posed for the portrait sessions, in relation to the CD and event.

The Brampton Guardian has an article on the win as well.

Art Gallery of Peel holds art bus tour

The Art Gallery of Peel is one of four stops an annual bus tour of area art galleries. The tour starts at the Art Gallery of Mississauga at 10 am, going to the Art Gallery of Peel, Gallery Streetsville, and the Blackwood Gallery. The bus returns to the Mississauga Civic Centre by 3:45 pm. Coffee and refreshments are provided in the morning, and time is scheduled in Streetsville, to allow you to go off and eat lunch and shop.

The “Regional Art Bus Tour” happens October 18, and costs $15 paid at the bus; pre-register by calling the Art Gallery of Mississauga at 905-896-5088, or email gail.farndon@mississauga.ca

VAB artists at Complex, October 3 and 4

Visual Arts Brampton artists will be demonstrating at the Peel Heritage Complex, on October 3 and 4, from 10 am to 5 pm. Throughout the day, artists including Debra Ali and Paul Highgate will be working on artwork, and available to talk to the public.

In the rest of the Complex, check out Susan Williamson's "wsh u wr hr" exhibit at the Whitney Gallery. Williamson organized our popular 1999 show Great Canadian Mail Art Show.

vablearn: Pete Emslie caricatures a teenage girl

Above is the test show for vablearn, Visual Arts Brampton's free instructional video project. Thanks to a 2008 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, VAB has purchased a digital video camera and is paying select artists to teach video workshops.

This test episode features Pete Emslie drawing a caricature of Emily Kowalik, co-instructor of VAB's 6-to-8-year-old youth classes. Outlining the steps he takes to draw a caricature, the image unfolds in this roughly 11 minute clip. Future episodes will be released in HD, with better sound; this first episode was an equipment test.

View the episodes as they're posted at visualartsbrampton.blip.tv, or subscribe for free, via iTunes.

VAB remembers watercolourist Jack Reid

"With the swipe of a paintbrush, Jack Reid left an impression on the world, and with a bright smile, he left an impression on Orillia." - quoted from Sarah Ross, Orillia Packet & Times

With great sadness, Visual Arts Brampton has recently learned of the passing of renowned watercolour artist Jack Reid.

A graphic artist, Jack became a watercolourist; with no formal training. Jack went on to teach workshops for over 11,000 students, worldwide, beginning in 1971.

He won the Canadian government's Commemorative Medal in 1992, exhibited in England with the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, and was a life member of the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto and Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour.

Within Brampton, Jack taught Watercolour My Way on Rogers Cable, and was the City of Brampton Arts Person of the Year in 1992. An honourary member of Visual Arts Brampton, in thanks for his recurring help to the group, Jack was the first artist featured at Artway Gallery, in Shoppers World. Moving to Orillia three years ago, he is said to have delved into the arts community there, just as much as he did in Peel.

Jack Reid passed away Monday morning, after a long battle with cancer. He was 84. Condolences may be sent to: Pat Carabine c/o Jack Reid 412 Old Muskoka Road, Apt. 209 South, Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6M5.

Remembering Jack Reid:

• "Jack Reid left his mark on Orillia", Orillia Packet & Times
• "Arts community revered Reid", The Sarnia Observer
• Jack Reid, Visual Arts Brampton bio (not yet updated)
• Jack Reid and Friends, our feature artist show in 2005

Youth laison added to Arts Council

You've likely already read about her in The Brampton Guardian, but now at the Brampton Arts Council is Kelly Lewars, taking the newly created role of youth liason.

Among her roles, Kelly started blogging for the Arts Council in mid-July, about various events around town, and the city's art scene in general. Among her recent posts is one about the 3rd annual Communities in Bloom Downtown Street Festival, which Visual Arts Brampton participated in, upstairs.

VAB's Carabram photos on Facebook

Check out Visual Arts Brampton's Facebook profile: recently added is a photos folder called Carabram 2009, where we're stockpiling photos of our art display and the the Canada pavilion in general. You don't have to have an account on Facebook to see the pictures, if you do however, considering becoming a "fan" of VAB.

Works on display at Carabram are by Betty Jean Evans, Marguerite Finlayson, Emily Kowalik, Keith Moreau, Jacqueline Riopka, Alex Rodway, with Bridget Aube Doughty.

Paul Draper places second in memorial design competition

A belated congratulations to adult member Paul Draper, who won second place in the Memorial Design Contest on the Lakeshore Asylum Cemetery. The winners of this memorial design contest were announced in April by the Psychiatric Survivor Archives, Toronto (PSAT).

The Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Cemetery (Evans Ave & Horner Ave, Etobicoke) is the internment location for 1511 people.

The contest brochure read: "The purpose of this campaign is to create a permanent public marker to remember the people buried here in a dignified and respectful way and to
acknowledge their contributions to our community. It is intended to right a grievous historical wrong in which we as a community say to the people buried here: 'You are forgotten no longer!'."

Read more on the newsgroup misc.activism.progressive

Events on our schedule: Carabram; Street Festival

Visual Arts Brampton will be presenting artwork featuring Canada, coast-to-coast next weekend (July 10, 11, and 12), at Carabram's Canada Pavilion. Named one of the top 50 festivals in Ontario, Carabram has become a summer tradition since starting in 1982. The festival is now 3000 volunteers strong and features 14 pavilions.

The Canadian Autoworkers Union, Local 1285 revived the Canada pavilion in 2007, and continues to host the event.

Canadian food, beer, spirits, activities for all ages, live Canadian bands, and Aboriginal displays and entertainment. Meals will be catered by Liaison Culinary School, and Beavertail pastry will be featured.More info at http://tr.im/carabram

The Annual Communities in Bloom Street Festival is

being held on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 from 6:00 – 9:30 pm in Garden Square at the Rose Theatre. Grown since it was started in 2007, it will again include a live portrait painting session by Visual Arts Brampton artists, as well as booths from various area artists and artisans, selling their creative creations. Live music and entertainment is scheduled.

Félicitations, Francesca!

Our congratulations goes out to teen member Francesca Riopka, who won the graduating class art award at Brampton's École Sainte Jeanne-D'Arc.

Our thanks to her mother, board member Jacqueline Riopka, who sent this photo in.

Dog art on display at Fridge Front

Newly on display at Fridge Front Gallery is a selection of dog drawings created by Visual Arts Brampton's Thursday evening open studio participants, members of its three older youth classes, and Artway exhibitor Devere Wint.

Students created the works over three weeks, and the creations cover the 6 main fridge doors at Fridge Front.

The exhibit will move to Happy Dogs Canine Centre in the coming weeks; Happy Dogs is a new business at 2578 Bovaird Dr W, en route to Norval.

John Bindon featured animal artist at Artway

John Bindon is the featured exhibitor at Artway Gallery this month, for our show Fin, Fur and Feather. Featured on display are various animal art images, with the highlights being a selection of dinosaurs, cows, and aquatic animals. The detailed paintings are created with acrylic, watercolour, and gouache.

Bindon has created works for the Philadelphia Field Museum and The Fernbank Museum, conceptual work for three Discovery Television shows. Bindon made character design contributions to Disney's 2000 film DINOSAUR.

Bindon has created calendar "Teddy Bear Corner" annually since 2001, and "Cow Mooods" annually from 1996-1999, and 2004 on. He has illustrated 18 books, and contributed to two school textbooks, box art for games, and paintings for four shaped puzzles. Clients have included Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Chicago Tribune, Irwin Toy, Gulf Oil, Imperial Oil, Kelloggs, Lucas Film, McDonalds, National Geographic TV, and Universal Studios.

Visit his website for more information.

Craig Fleming featured in Guardian

Check out Ashley Goodfellow's interview of Drawing in Black and White featured artist Craig Fleming, "Local artist an expert with a pencil". The article appeared in the most recent issue of the Brampton Guardian, and of course can also be read online.

The exhibit runs until June 26, 2009.

Inspirations awards ceremony held by library

Tuesday, June 9, the Brampton Library held its awards ceremony for their annual Inspirations competition. Visual Arts Brampton president Keith Moreau was a judge for this year's competition, finding the best entry from those in grade 7 and 8 who entered the visual art category.

Among the highlights of the evening at the Brampton City Hall council chambers was a speech from former VAB youth student Kelly Anderson, who has won awards from the library multiple times, who spoke of her experiences. A slide presentation of artwork was shown.

VAB hopes to post pictures of the event, when they become available.

Here is a picture, found on July 4...

Creating dog pictures today, at studio

Today at the VAB studio, the kids have been focused on creating drawings of dogs. The purpose? They're creating works for display for display at new business Happy Dogs Canine Centre. The vast majority of Saturday youth students have chosen to participate in this exhibit, plus many Thursday evening participants, and at least one adult member.

Happy Dogs will be at 2578 Bovaird Dr W, which is between Mississauga Road and Winston Churchill Boulevard, en route to Norval.

Mail Art Call: What is Canada?

Theme: What is Canada? Canadian landscapes, people, animals, stereotypes of the country, whatever you can think of, somehow relating to Canada. Any medium or technique is allowed. This call is open to everyone, regardless of age or country of residence, not just Canadians.

Where: Art will be on display at the Canada pavilion of Carabram: Brampton's Multicultural Festival, in Brampton, Ontario, Canada (a suburb of Toronto) on July 10, 11, 12. It will later move on to WAG: World Art Gallery, VAB's permanent postcard-sized art display space in Shoppers World, a mall in Brampton.

Size: 10 x 15 cm / 4 x 6 in (postcard sized-only, please)

Deadline: July 7, 2009

Documentation: We'll post scans of all entries on twitter.com/wagpost


Send your creations to:
1 Bartley Bull Parkway
Suite 10
Brampton ON
L6W 1R8
Canada

Contact: visualartsbrampton@gmail.com

VAB to be at 3rd annual Street Festival

Visual Arts Brampton will the 2009 Communities in Bloom Street Festival. It will be held on Thursday, July 23rd from 6 - 9:30 pm in Garden Square at the Rose Theatre.

When the event started in 2007, VAB artists worked on a portrait of Jessica Miller, Miss Independent Florists of Brampton 2007, the eventual Miss Brampton 2008. VAB also hosted Brampton Arts Council mascot Millie, and a colouring table. Last year, Marian Simpson and Maria Dlubak painted from woodcarver John McCartney, while Debra Ali worked on a floral painting.

This year, Visual Arts Brampton will have some adult and teen members working on a portrait. We may also have other activities, for the public to participate in. If you'd like to participate, email us ahead of time, as we have limited space.

New site like a Facebook for the Brampton arts community

Creative Brampton is a new online community for artists, musicians, dancers, actors... living in or based in Brampton. According to their promotional email:

A place where folks can meet, share ideas, show off their work, create a blog, chat, post their thoughts, support other artists, publicize events and so much more. With a click of your mouse you’re connected to other like-minded folks in Brampton.

Free to join, CreativeBrampton.com is a great opportunity to network and promote your work, or your events for FREE. Whether you’re a writer, sculptor, performing artist, musician, entertainer, dancer, manage a club, host events, or even are just a supporter of the arts, join us and see what’s going on! We'd love to know what you're up to as well.

Visual Arts Brampton has a profile on the site, that we're gradually going to flesh out with more information and pictures.

Danby first show at “Art Gallery at the Rose Theatre Brampton”

The Rose Theatre lobby is now going to house art exhibits. First off in the space, called Art Gallery at the Rose Theatre Brampton, will be The Life Works of Ken Danby. The exhibit will run from June 1 to September 1, 2009, and be free during theatre hours.

Seventeen of the works on displays will be either serigraphs (with up to 29 colours) or lithographs, ranging from 1965 to 2004. The show will also include two original watercolours, “The Old Mill” (1965) and “March Break” (1987).

For more information, visit the Rose Theatre website.

Out and about: Doors Open Fergus-Elora, Saturday, June 20

On Saturday, June 20 from 10 am to 4 pm, Fergus and Elora will be hosting a Doors Open event in their towns. On the tour are stops including the Wellington County Museum & Archives, various historic homes and buildings, gardens, and a modern horse breeding facility.

There's two spots of interest to artists and art-lovers... Fergus Business Improvement Area 2009 Art Walk, on St. Andrew's Street, between Tower and St. David streets, is expecting to welcome 70 artists and artisans. The Elora Centre for the Arts (75 Melville St.) is set in a school building from 1856. Opened in 2003, the Centre includes the Minarovich Gallery, classrooms, studio and performance space, a Centre for Environmental Excellence, a Montessori school, dance academy, and a photography studio.

For more information, visit www.elorafergus.travel

W.G. Davis art class on display at Fridge Front

Artwork by Grace Bailey's Visual Arts class is on display now, at Fridge Front Gallery. Ms. Bailey teaches at William Grenville Davis Senior Public School, just up the road from the VAB studios. Her classes have exhibited in 2006 and 2007, and we're glad to welcome her back to Fridge Front again.

View a panoramic shot of this exhibit on Twitpic.

Brampton Arts Council on Facebook

You can now receive the Brampton Arts Council on Facebook, by "Fan"-ing their page. Do so, and a link to their weekly newsflash will show up in your news feed.

Also, a reminder that Visual Arts Brampton is on Facebook, and we regularly post the "best of" our blog and Twitter feed on the page. Again, this information appears on your news feed.

Acrylic for teens, with Emily Kowalik

Join Emily Kowalik from August 10 to 14 this summer, for five days of acrylic instruction. Open to teens from ages 12 to 18, this class will run 10 am to 2 pm.

Emily is the current co-instructor of Visual Arts Brampton's popular art classes for 6-to-8-year-olds. She has been teaching these classes for the last two years. Emily is currently a student at Mayfield School of the Arts, in her final year.

Landscapes, National Youth Week installed last night

Last night, the Landscapes exhibit was installed at Artway. Featured in the exhibit is long-time Visual Arts Brampton member Conrad Mieschke. Also on display are Luis Barrios, Marguerite Finlayson, Dolores Miron, William H. Simmons (pictured, hanging one of his works).

Also installed last night was the National Youth Week exhibit, presented in partnership with the City of Brampton Arts, Culture & Theatre department. Original and reproduced artwork was submitted to the Rose Theatre and Pearson Theatre by the public, and to the studio by our youth students. The result is a great, diversely-themed show in our Fridge Front Gallery space.

1969 at Fridge Front

For quite a few weeks now, Fridge Front Gallery has featured portraits, animal art, and still lifes by Visual Arts Brampton youth students to the theme of 1969. Why was the year 1969 chosen? It's actually Shoppers World Brampton's 40th anniversary this year. (Their branding has had a fresh, yet retro makeover.)

Also on display right now are cartoons by the Visual Arts Brampton youth art students.

Finally, there's a selection of art between the fridge doors, created by young mall visitors on Saturday, April 4 during our Laughlines exhibit celebration event.

Out and About: 36th Annual Juried Show of Fine Art at the AGP

Back on April 8, I had the pleasure of attending the opening for the 36th Annual Juried Show of Fine Art at the Art Gallery of Peel.

Having participated in and viewed the show regularly for many years, the selection in this year's show is, in my estimation, the nicest cross-section yet. At the opening, I didn't vote for the People's Choice Award, simply because there was so many great works. I overheard multiple people vocalize how impressed with the quality level of the work on display. Artist Lyn Carter and George Wale, Burlington Art Centre's Director of Programs, were the ones adjudicating the show.

A congratulations goes out to Lynne Schumacher, a regular at our Wednesday portrait sessions. Lynne's oil on canvas First Light won the Colony Ford-Lincoln Award. In total, 366 artists submitted works, and 61 pieces are on display; 20 are from Peel.

The show continues until May 17.

For more information, visit the press release.

Guardian report on posing for a portrait session

VAB's portrait sessions were one of the first "Behind the Scenes" columns, by Brampton Guardian arts reporter Ashley Goodfellow. A sample quote from the article "Portrait of an arts reporter":

I'll admit it was a tremendous feeling to be at the pinnacle of all of this; my appreciation for portraiture was greatly enriched by my exposure to this group. I was able to experience first-hand the way artists work- and they were able to reveal interpretations of me I may never have seen...or considered...before.

Although I mostly sat still for the better part of four hours, it was extremely exciting. And, the results were beyond impressive.

According to the online version of the article, there's actually a video feature on the portrait bunch, upcoming.

Teen class capped

The teen class is officially capped at its capacity; no more students will be admitted.

2009 home assignment list

The 9-12 and 12-18 year old youth classes all have "home assignments" to do throughout the year.

The list is below, but if you're wanting to print it, we strongly advise downloading this PDF, as it saves paper. (This PDF will open in any version of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader, a free download from Adobe.)

Download the list.



The List

1. Art supplies in a glass
2. Beauty products
3. Cleaning products: floor, laundry, toothpaste...
4. Electronic device: Television, MP3 player, nose hair trimmer; something that either needs to be plugged in, or has batteries in it.
5. Game pieces
6. Hand, holding something
7. Holiday items: any cultural or religious holiday (Christmas, Ramadan, Dwali, St Patrick's Day, Valentine's, Canada Day, Halloween), or a birthday.
8. Lamp with shade
9. Makes a squeek: rocking chair, squeaky toy, something that needs oiling
10. Mode of travel: Man-made or animal, anything other than your feet.
11. My hobby: anything other than art, it can be a collection, an activity...
12. Objects and their reflection: any object, reflected on any object.
13. Pet in a container: An animal in a cage or carrying container, a fish in a fishbowl or tank, a dog on a dog bed, a cat in a litterbox.
14. Plant in a container
15. Set of key in a lock: the keys must be on a keyring or keychain; any type of lock is fine.
16. Stuffed toy with basket
17. Telephone
18. Tools and fasteners: such as wrench and bolts, driver and screws; must be related to each other somehow, ie no zipper and chainsaw
19. Toy with wheels
20. Waste basket

Wearables
21. Backpack on step
22. Coat or jacket over the back of a chair
23. Headgear
24. Shoes hanging from a doorknob

Eat
25. Bowl of popcorn
26. Crumpled drink container: empty pop can, juice box, carton...
27. Kitchen utensils
28. Your favourite treat

Locations
29. Corner of my room
30. Open drawer: Must be from above, so that we can see into it.
31. Scene from a window: Make sure that it's really obvious that we're looking through a window, and not just at a yard or landscape, or a photo in a frame. It can be any window, though, not just at your home.
32. Table set for guests: Kitchen table, dining room table, picnic table, deck table, tea party.
33. Tap and sink

Open-ended
34. Same object, twice, the second time changed in some way: The exact same object, some how changed the second time you draw it. (Rotating it doesn't count.)

BramLib launches Inspirations, for kids, teen to submit art

Young artists (grades 1 through 12) are encouraged to submit their unpublished short stories, poems, and/or artwork to the Brampton Library, from February 16 to March 31, 2009.

One short story, one poem, and one piece of artwork will be selected for each grade level by an independent selection panel; all the selected submissions will appear in a published book, Inspirations: Brampton Library’s Journal of Youth Writing and Artwork.

The selected authors, poets, and artists will be recognized for their achievements at a presentation reception to be held on June 9, 2009. For more information, visit their website, or download the grade 1 to 8 or 9 to 12 entry forms.

William Band on display at BBOT

Last week, a display of watercolour paintings by William Band went on display at the Brampton Board of Trade offices. A Visual Arts Brampton member, Band is currently teaching a watercolour workshop at the studio, with only two more weeks to go.

For the last few months, Paul Highgate has been on display, with a display of his scratchboard artwork.

Barrios/Evans/Highgate/Moreau @ Ching

Luis Barrios, Betty Jean Evans, Paul Highgate, and Keith Moreau are the first three people on display at Chinguacousy branch of the Brampton Public Library's display case. The case is actually out in the Civic Centre itself, as opposed to being something you actually have to go into the library to see.

Each of the three Visual Arts Brampton members will have their work on display for the month of March. A few other member artists will be on display in April.

1969

New at Fridge Front Gallery is 1969, an exhibit of youth art, all relating to the year Shoppers World opened.

• Susan Olsen as Cindy Brady, of The Brady Bunch, which premiered in 1969.
• Don Messick, voice actor who provided the voice of the lead in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and its spin-offs, which debut in 1969.
• Jimi Hendrix, who performed at the Woodstock Festival.
  
• the AMC Rambler, made in Brampton, ceasing production that year.
• "The Eagle", the Apollo 11 lunar lander.
• A penguin, to represent the species negatively affected by DDT, an issue that continued to build in 1969.
  
• Three people born that year: Jack Black, Jennifer Aniston, and Emmitt Smith.

Also on display are many other works by the students, plus a few remaining works by the students from Roberta Bondar Public School. The exhibit of Sir Winston Churchill students has been taken down, and will be returned to their students in a few days.

Portrait exhibit "Making Faces" now on display

Last night, the annual portrait exhibit Making Faces went on display. On display this month are Mary Chorniuk, Marguerite Finlayson, Craig Fleming, Tony Jenkins, Mary Noble, Elizabeth Patrick, Marian Simpson, and Devere Wint.

Ashley Goodfellow posed for a portrait

Also on display is a section of portraits of Ashley Goodfellow, the arts reporter for The Brampton Guardian. She actually posed for the portrait bunch last Wednesday, from 10 am to 2 pm. While you always get a fantastic variety of styles and mediums when you visit Artway, this is especially interesting, to see six different takes on the same face.

Her posing for the portrait bunch was embedded journalism, if you will, as Ashley was doing research for a story on the portrait exhibit and on our weekly portrait session.

The Globe's Tony Jenkins on display
Later this afternoon, we'll be displaying Tony Jenkins' portraiture. Tony is best known as the editorial cartoonist for The Globe and Mail, for which he also does various illustrations. He was a finalist for the National Newspaper Award for Editorial Cartooning, an award administered
by the Canadian Newspaper Association.

From Toronto, Tony’s black and white cartooning has influenced his painting, in his search for line and structure. His travels through the Third World have engendered his love of dramatic colour and heightened his fascination with the human face. Some of his roadside sketches appeared in early editions of the Lonely Planet travel guide series.

Jenkins has previously exhibited at various galleries and restaurants, including Toronto music pantheon Hugh's Room, where he showed his folk, blue, and soul musician caricatures. His caricatures will be part of next month's Laughlines exhibit.

Tony's site: jenkins draws

A few links about Tony's cartoons:
Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists: "Anthony Jenkins: An interview with resident Globe & Mail illustrator"
Association of American Editorial Cartoonists: "Slightly Wryer in Canada"
Drawn.ca

National Youth Week 2009 Art Showcase

As seen on The Brampton Guardian and Orangeville Banner websites this past Thursday, and presumably in the paper editions very soon, Visual Arts Brampton is hosting the National Youth Week 2009 Art Showcase.

The City of Brampton and Visual Arts Brampton are calling young artists, asking them to show off their work as part of National Youth Week in Brampton.

The National Youth Week 2009 Art Showcase is open to local youth between the ages of 10 and 19. For the first three weeks of May, Fridge Front Gallery will feature the works, in this Canada-wide celebration of youth.

Guidelines:

- art work needs to featured on a 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper (do not bend or fold the sheet)
- no art will be returned, so photocopies are suggested
- youth must be between the ages of 10-19
- multiple pieces may be entered by one artists; there is no guarantee that all the pieces will be featured as space is limited
- there is no theme to the showcase, although the National Youth Week Committee has the right to withhold art from being shown

Artwork may be submitted by mail to:

Konrad Skorupa
1 Theatre Lane
Brampton, Ontario
L6V 0A3

Or it can be dropped off in person at the Rose Theatre Box Office or Lester B. Pearson Theatre Box Office.

Rose Theatre Box Office
Monday – Saturday 10:00AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday: Closed if no event

Lester B. Pearson Theatre Box Office
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday: 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM, 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Wednesday: 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM, 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Sunday: Closed if no event

A few notes on Zazzle...

• Check out some of the new art products we've added to Zazzle, as we're gradually starting to grow the selection even more.
  

• Artist will now get the entire 10% royalty for their works sold. Zazzle pays us 10% of the purchase price of any item. Originally, we were going to keep 3% as a fee for putting your work online. We've now decided that all of the royalty will go to the artist, to keep thing nice and simple, and a touch more lucrative from your perspective, as the artist.
  

• We received our first cheque with royalties from Zazzle: it actually had a Zazzle-produced American stamp on it. The quality of the stamp was actually much better than I expected, a good printing quality and paper, very reassuring.
  

Guardian: "Former resident featured in art exhibit"

Artway guest exhibitor John Bindon was interviewed by The Brampton Guardian recently, and the article is now available on the Guardian website as "Former resident featured in art exhibit".

VAB acknowledged by Battalion/CN Community Ticket Program

The Brampton Battalion are going to face off against the Kingston Frontenacs this Thursday, February 5, at 7 pm.

Why are we mentioning this? They play games all the time, what make this one special?

VAB has been recognised through the CN Community Ticket Program.

In the words of one of the sport club's interns, "This program provides 20 tickets to every Battalion home game to a not-for-profit organization that has an impact on the community of Brampton and surrounding areas."

We've distributed the tickets to board members, volunteers, and other members that have made a difference in VAB's operations as a community group. We thank CN and the Battalion for this recognition.

Art Gallery of Peel Juried Show form available

The form for the 36th Annual Art Gallery of Peel Juried Art Show is now online.

Entry fee is $12 for members of the Peel Heritage Complex, $15 for non-members; you can submit from March 23 to 29, 2009. Artists can submit one work, to make sure jurors are not overwhelmed. Artist Lyn Carter and Burlington Arts Centre's Director of Programs George Wale are adjudicating the show.

Interestingly, our group's president, Keith Moreau, is pictured on the back of the pamphlet. He's at the opening with his wife, who's turned the other way.


About the show
Form

One of the 6-to-8-year-old classes full

The 9:30 to 11:00 am class for 6-to-8-year-olds, taught by Emily Kowalik and Paulina Su, is full for 2009. Unless someone is to move part way through the year, or stop attending for another reason, no new students will be admitted.

The 11:30 am to 1:00 pm time does have a few spots available, however. If you'd like to sign up, contact the studio, ASAP.

Nov. 2010 invitational show announced: Brampton Quilters' Guild

From 30 October to 26 November 2010, Artway Gallery in Shoppers World Brampton will feature Invitational Show: Brampton Quilters' Guild. The exhibit will feature original quilts by some of their members.

Founded by a group of night school students and their teacher, back in 1987, the guild's member varies between 120 and 160. They meet from September to June each year, and have various quilt related programs.

We look forward to their display!

Brampton Quilters' Guild
Brampton Quilters' Guild blog (new posts from their blog now appear on our blog's sidebar, see below)

Youth award winner photos

Many thanks to Nicholas, Makini's father, for these photos of the youth awards ceremony. Click to enlarge.

Around the Web: January 2009

A few quick links to interesting sites around the web:

• Vancouver Animation is a new site, described by its publishers as an "Online Gazette", with weekly interviews, features, a directory, and forums.
• We presume most people have heard of it by now, but we've been subscribing to Canadian Brushstroke Magazine for over a year now; with a free online subscription, you get a link to a PDF magazine every two months.
• If you're looking for reference photos that you can legally work from for your art, try Flickr's Creative Commons search. Just type in your search term, then check off all three boxes in the Creative Commons section. This will narrow the search results to only the pictures that professional and hobbyist photographers have released as "CC-BY". You do have to give credit to the photographer, as the creator of the original work, but otherwise you're good to go.
  

Sir Winston Churchill at Fridge Front

Starting Saturday, January 10, come see art by students at Sir Winston Churchill Public School. Their grade 5 class has created 21 works on the theme "What type of learner am I?".

Their creations will be displayed on the three fridge door section, while the exhibit by Roberta Bondar Public School continues on the six fridge door section.

We're always looking for more schools to participate; visit our page about "Fridge Front Gallery" to learn more, or contact us directly.

Drawing in Colour and Black and White workshop starts February

Drawing in Colour and Black and White
with Keith Moreau
Wednesdays, February 11 to April 1, 2009
7-9 pm

This 8-week workshop covers an overview of perspective, still life drawing, portraits, two weeks of the whiteline drawing medium of scratchboard, and two weeks with the art of coloured pencil.

Keith Moreau is a Brampton artist-illustrator, and has taught for this workshop for many years, at various locations around the GTA. His Patriotic Pickup coloured pencil piece was shown in the nationally-entered and nationally-touring Art of the Automobile exhibit, which included a stop in Toronto at the Canadian International Autoshow. He was the 1992 City of Brampton Arts Person of the Year.

Keith's artwork, along with that of William Band, Emily Kowalik, and Paulina Su, will be featured in Artway Gallery at Shoppers World, this January.

Floral Images of Flower City scheduled

We've just confirmed that "Floral Images of Flower City", our annual show at Brampton City Hall's Art in the Atrium gallery space, is back on for 2009.

The show will run Tuesday, June 3 until Monday, June 30, during regular city business hours. (Set up for the show will be at 4:30 pm June 2.)

The show, which has gone under a few different titles, was first launched in the spring of 2002. Ever since Brampton's Sesquicentennial anniversary (150 years), we've had the exhibit in June, simultaneous to the Brampton Horticultural Society's flower show, the Flower City Parade, and until it ceased operation, the Brampton Folk Festival.

Out and About: Etobicoke Civic Centre, Art Gallery of Mississauga

Saturday, we visited two area galleries. First off was the Willowdale Group of Artists' Juried Exhibition at the Etobicoke Civic Centre Gallery. Over 70 pieces were on display, with an interesting cross-section.

The next exhibit looks intriguing as well, an exhibit of batiks by youth from the Jamestown and Jane and Finch neighbourhoods.

(The listing of shows on the gallery's site ended in June last year. For more information on the gallery, apparently the phone number is 416-394-8390.)

Next up was the Art Gallery of Mississauga's Visual Arts Mississauga Juried Art Show. We were delighted to discover Visual Arts Brampton member and Don Mills resident Mary Chorniuk was accepted in the show. Her oil landscape "Carmino de Santiago, Galicia, Spain" is at the entrance to the largest room of the gallery. Wendy Vervoovt, Cathy Griggs, and Steve Volpe took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in the show. Honourable mentions go to Margaret Squire, Susan Dawn, and Z. Q. Lon.

An extra treat at the Mississauga City Hall was an exhibit of Japanese dolls, presented by The Japan Foundation. Their quite well-designed, and apparently the Bradley Museum and Mississauga Library Central Branch have other artifacts on display.

wag:reboot

The World Art Gallery (WAG), Visual Arts Brampton's international postcard-art exhibit space at Shoppers World Brampton, has been refreshed with many new artworks, and a new hanging system.