“Celebrating Canadian Rural Living”
The 2008 Desmond Juried Art Exhibition and Sale drew submissions of 74 artworks by 33 artists. The theme “Celebrating Canadian Rural Living” inspired wide interpretations. The three jurors saw paintings in watercolour, oil, and acrylic, photographs, graphics, a few sculptures and an installation. After intense jurying sessions, 35 artworks were selected for the show.
Although the jurors came to their task from different backgrounds, they were generally in close agreement on the final selections. Martin Pearce, an award-winning painter, holds a Master of Fine Art in Painting from the prestigious Royal College of Art in London England. He has exhibited widely across Canada and since 2000 has taught painting and drawing at University of Toronto and University of Guelph. Martin is currently Assistant Professor of Painting at the University of Guelph School of Fine Art and Music. Carl Lavoy graduated from University of Windsor with a Bachelor in Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Education. He has been Director and Curator of the Thames Art Gallery in Chatham since 1997. During those 11 years Carl has curated a large number of exhibitions by artists working in diverse mediums. He initiated an ongoing series of themed shows for community artists and has been invited to guest-jury art exhibitions across Ontario.
Recently Carl facilitated the opening of ARTspace in Chatham with a well-received fast-selling juried show. Dr. Donald Desmond is a dentist who has made a career of collecting art. He regularly attends art exhibitions and auctions where he has developed an experienced eye for art.
The collector/curator/professor trio “welcomed the unconventional and looked at more conventional work for investigative and engaged ways that the images might have been made.” They “were critical of work that [they] thought adhered to a formula or bordered on cliché and were most excited by work which [they] felt to represent an identifiable and individual voice”. Dr. Desmond says "As a collector, my eye is attracted to paintings with excellent composition and simplicity that I can hang on the wall and recapture a moment at each glance. " Martin Pearce advises submitting artists to “look at the work of their peers (and of other artists everywhere) and consider the "location" of their work within this creative continuum - something we all must do as practicing artists.” Carl Lavoy says “The submissions reflected a diverse range of activity by individuals who are at various stages of development in their artistic careers. The works selected displayed technical excellence in the handling of materials and a level of sophistication in composition and execution. The pieces that stood out as the strongest were those that broke through boundaries and pushed the limits while maintaining a strong emphasis on good drawing, design, and use of materials. The prizes that have been awarded are acknowledgements of works that were exceptional in some way where creativity and intellectual process are visibly intertwined.” Artists are reminded that they are part of the jurying process, for they are the ones who make the initial decision of what to submit. Those whose work was not accepted may take comfort in knowing that a different group of jurors would likely have selected a different exhibition.
In awarding prizes to this year’s artists it was enthusiastically and unanimously agreed that first place go to Irene MacCreadie’s mixed media work “Kent Heyday”, a piece which came about after the artist worked on a Wallaceburg Museum exhibit concerning the local history of sugar beet farming. Bob West’s lone entry, a photograph of a back road near Ridgetown, entitled “All Country Roads Lead Somewhere” gained second prize. Third prize went to Nancy Vadnais’ evocative oil on canvas “Homestead Lanterns in Winter”.
The jurors also decided that three works deserved Honorable Mention:
Mark Reinhart’s installation piece “Sprinkles”, B. Jane Jack’s oil on canvas “Mr. Stirling Does the Chores” and Robby’s hard edge oil “Canadian Country Road”.
Taken as a group, the six chosen works highlight the diversity of entries and the high quality of submissions to this year’s show.
Marlee Percival Robinson
Coordinator
