February 2022

Feature Artist

Richard Bremness

Polar coy / Oil on Canvas

Message from the President

I have had a sign shop business for over 35 years and, that whole time, I have worked a 5 day week (minimum). Last year one of my suppliers decided to close his shop Mondays and Fridays so that he was only open 3 days a week. I thought that many of his customers would not be happy with that and that he was doomed, but no...we all shifted and now know to plan ahead if we need something from him. I decided to try it too.

This year, during my slow time (January to March) I decided to go down to a 4 day week and my whole life has changed!! All of a sudden I have time to get personal things done, appointments to attend, etc. all without worrying about who's looking after my shop. I've only had 4 free Mondays so far but I am loving them. They've been packed full and it's giving me a hint on what it might be like to retire.

I even painted this past Monday. Mind you, it was a job/commission to do a front cover of a book, but I was able to get into the "zone" without worrying about answering phones and customers interrupting. It was pure pleasure and the finished piece reflected that and the client was thrilled. It makes me want to paint more and now I can...on Mondays!

The other thing I have started to do on Mondays is work on the next SWCA book entries. There is more about this under BOOK COMMITTEE  but I just wanted to add that I am amazed at what has come in so far. It is going to be a beautiful book and I am so proud of our club member's talents. 

So to sum it all up, I am really enjoying my 4 day work weeks and maybe my world can be such that it does not have to go back to being a 5 day work week...fingers crossed. I haven't had any customer complaints yet!

Eveline Garneau, SWCA President

Programs

FEBRUARY ZOOM MEETING: Monday, February 14, Valentine's Day 

Zoom meeting starts at 7:00 pm. Room access starts at 6:30 pm.

PROGRAM: CRITIQUE with Karen Bishop

Karen is a Signature member of SWCA. For more information about Karen, visit www.karenbishop.ca.

We continue to review elements of the Jury Score Sheet in our critique. Karen will focus first on composition and then look at other elements of the artwork if there is time. If you have specific questions for the critic, be sure to have them handy for the meeting.

Please send up to 2 painting images in a high resolution format to John Labots before Saturday, February 12, 6:00 pm. The second painting will be critiqued if there is time. Paintings do not have to be completed.

DECEMBER MEETING TRIVIA FUN:

At the December zoom meeting we held a fun trivia game. Congratulations to John Labots for having the most correct answers! Since less than 20 people attended that meeting, we thought it would be fun to share the game in this newsletter so the rest of you can try it. Access it here. Correct answers can be found at the end of this newsletter.

CONGRATULATIONS: to the Door Prize winners from the December AGA visit: Catherine Goddard, Valerie Burke, Olya Lisova, Cornelia Hansen. They each won a $25 gift card from The Paint Spot.

SWCA Exhibitions

Misericordia Exhibition

With Omicron still causing chaos at the Misericordia Hospital, the current exhibition has been asked to stay up. So far 6 paintings total have sold. If you have work there and you wish to take it down, please contact Jenna to make the arrangements.

Since Jenna is new to the position of Exhibitions Chairperson, let's help her by sending her a welcome message and any suggestions as to where we could have a show. If she gets a nice list of potential spots and possible contacts, it will make her "job" that much easier and we will all benefit. Thank you!

Special Spots in Alberta - Through the Eyes of Its Artists

We had a very productive zoom meeting last week and everyone got to see the 160 entries that have come in so far. Everyone is very impressed but we all saw that we still need some definite pieces to really make it all Alberta. We feel that the tourism industry will love this book and all the souvenir stores in all of Alberta will love to carry it. But it needs to show more tourist spots of Alberta.

The committee's homework was to send in a list of spots still needed and here is what came in:

• Banff Cave and Basin Hot Springs
• Banff Springs Hotel
• Skiing in Jasper
• Cowboy Trail (Highway 22 in southern Alberta)
• Big Rock by Okotoks
• Government House in Edmonton
• Fort Edmonton
• Art Gallery of Alberta
• Turner Valley Gas Plant & Oil Field
• Bar U Ranch
• Fort McMurray Oil Sands
• Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton
• Roger's Place
• Calgary's Saddledome
• Frank Landslide
• Provincial Park Lakes, Sylvan Lake
• Royal Tyrrell Museum
• Medalta potteries & Medicine Hat Clay Industries
• Indigenous dancers at Calgary Stampede
• Red Deer: Alberta Sports Hall of Fame
• West Edmonton Mall
• Skylines of Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary

We have TONS of mountain scenes so if you have already put in your 5 selections and want to switch a mountain scene to something on the list, that is no problem!

Please check past work to see if it might work. Maybe only a few tweaks will make it perfect? If you decide on painting a new piece, please give Eveline a call at 780-489-1028 so that she can put your name next to that subject so that we have few repeats.

Speaking of repeats...some of the things on our list we have in our Edmonton book. How does the membership feel if we repeat some of those paintings in our new book? If someone bought both our books, would they be sad to see repeats? To give your opinion or to send in your entries, please do it to swcabook@gmail.com

Our goal is to have the book ready to go to the printers by this summer. Let's do it!

Upcoming Meetings

February 14

March 14 (Annual General Meeting)

April 11

The Bigger Picture section provides 3rd party information that would potentially benefit members – Artists helping artists! This section includes: personal news and announcements from members, event announcements within the community, and advertising and art information from art suppliers. Disclaimer: SWCA does not endorse the products and services listed, and does not vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in this section.

THE 100 DAY PROJECT

www.the100dayproject.org

Write, sketch, make music. The great thing about this is you can do anything. You are encouraged to think through your idea and help form it so that you will have success. It's free. A good challenge during another Covid wave. It's amazing to see after a while what difference even 10 minutes a day can make to your creative practice.

This was my attempt on the 100 day project – a colour mixing project – although I did not finish it

Anita Nawrocki 

DECEMBER MEETING TRIVIA ANSWERS:

1. C 2. D 3. B 4. B 5. C 6. C 7. A 8. C 9. D 10. B

11. C 12. A 13. A 14. D 15. C 16. D 17. D 18. D 19. B 20. B