CNE attendance figures announced

This year, attendance to the CNE grew a quite healthy 9%, according to organizers. The Canadian National Exhibition Association's Annual General Meeting was last night in Toronto, and David Bednar announced the success, which equals 1.31 million visitors over the 18 day period.


Also, a warm welcome to Brian Ashton, the newly elected 58th President of CNEA’s volunteer Board of Directors.

Visual Arts Brampton has now twice exhibited at its floral art show in Heritage Court of the Direct Energy Centre, as part of the Garden Show.

Portfolio workshop for high school regional arts programs

Designed for grade 8 students applying to the Regional Arts Program at Mayfield or Cawthra Park Secondary School, at Visual Arts Brampton studio this autumn.

Instructor Annelisa Fischer will help young artists while they create works for their portfolio, select which works to include, and prepare you for the audition process. The workshop will include drawing, painting, drawing a self portrait, and drawing a still life.

Classes run for eleven Thursdays, October 27 to January 19th, from 7 to 9 pm. (Particular Thursdays are skipped around Christmas and New Year's.) The fee is $110, payable at the first class.

Classes will be held at the Visual Arts Brampton Creative Studios, 1 Bartley Bull Parkway, Suite 10, at Steeles Avenue and Main Street South. Interested students must reserve a spot in advance, by calling 905-453-9142.

VAB in Scientific American

This is certainly a first: tonight at Visual Arts Brampton's Artway Invitational Gallery, we're installing Artistic by Nature, an exhibit of work by members of Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators. While that in itself is a first, the show is being featured on Symbiartic, a Scientific American blog about science art.


If you're not aware, SciAm was first published in 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. Contributors have included Albert Einstein. It is written for an educated, but not necessarily science-trained, public.


The show runs until November 16.

Science, nature illustrators on display at Artway Invite

Tomorrow night at 8 pm, we install the show Artistic by Nature: An exhibit of work by Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators (SONSI) at Artway Invitational Gallery, at Shoppers World Brampton.

The show runs October 13 – November 16, 2011, and features Kathryn Chorney, Emily S. Damstra, Trish Murphy, and Jennifer Osborn. Artway Invitational Gallery is located in the southeast corner of the shopping centre, near to Zellers.

The four artists featured in this exhibit are all members of the Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators (SONSI), a community of illustrators whose work focuses on science and nature subjects. SONSI aims to raise the profile of this specialized subset of the illustration, art, and design profession, to share their dedication to visualizing aspects of the natural world, and to help educate the public about issues in science and nature. Most SONSI members live either in or between the Greater Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo areas, with a few further afield in Sarnia, Southampton, and towns east of Kingston.

Nature and Science Illustration is all around us, even though the general public may not be as aware of it as they are of more high-profile types of art. We see it on web sites, in zoos, nature centers, and museums, on posters & brochures in the doctor, dentist, or vet's office, in school books, calendars, note cards, magazines, galleries, or in any one of thousands of illustrated books for children and adults that capture the wonders of the natural world and science ideas.

Science illustrators work with publishers, designers, art directors, scientists, advertisers, and educators in developing visuals that communicate vital information as they illuminate the beauties of nature and the wonders of science. Subject matter ranges from nature and biology thru to astronomy and the latest conceptual thinking. What all science illustrations have in common is an exacting level of accuracy and faithfulness to the subject or concept, combined with a high degree of artistic skill and judgment in bringing the subject to life in a striking manner.

SONSI exhibits are for all art lovers as well as everyone who loves nature’s wonders and harbours curiosity about the natural world.

For more information about SONSI or to leave a comment about this exhibit, please visit the Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators’ web site at sonsi.ca.