It’s a win-win situation.
At the art show and sale being held at the Smithfield Lodge this weekend, visitors can get some top-quality pieces for reasonable prices, while at the same time supporting local artists and residents of the lodge.
Nancie Switzer, the activities co-ordinator at the lodge, has been teaching residents how to paint. After nearly a year of effort, the artists are ready to show off their work.
“It’s going to be a two-day event, mainly showing off what we’ve been doing and hoping that there will be some sales,” she said.
The show will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, and again from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the atrium at Smithfield Lodge. Most of the work displayed will be from residents of the Smithfield and Pembina lodges; they began working on painting last summer, and many have produced remarkable works.
“I’m very proud of what my seniors have been accomplishing in the last year,” Switzer said. “They’ve sold quite a lot in the lodge, but this is the first time we’re opening it up to the public and showing it off.”
The artists will, for the most part, be asking only a modest price for their paintings, and many will be in the $10-$20 range for an unframed piece. The money will help support the artists and the residents of the lodges.
“Part of it will go to the artist, and I’m asking 25 per cent would go to the residents’ fund,” Switzer said.
Switzer said the show will not be limited to lodge residents; some other local painters will also display their work, including one who has gotten a lot of attention recently.
“I’ve also invited Rachelle Zadunayski,” Switzer said. “She said she would put in a painting as well, so I told her if she sold that it would go toward her cause.”
Zadunayski, who underwent brain surgery last year, has been selling her paintings to raise funds to support other kids going to the Stollery Hospital’s Camp Neurosurgery.
Raising money is by no means the motivation for holding the show, however.
“It’s that whole thing of getting the recognition. When I first started with them they were scared to put the paint on the canvas,” Switzer said. “Now they’ve got to the point where they’re painting a lot and they have their own style. Some of it is quite interesting stuff.”
The artists themselves also see the benefit of what they are doing.
Denise Pipke, a Smithfield resident who last week was working on a painting of a tornado forming over her old farmhouse, has only been painting since Switzer began teaching the residents.
“I took up painting because it’s supposed to be relaxing. I don’t find that at all,” she laughed.
Simone Provost, another resident, was working on a painting of a ranch based on a photo taken by her niece. She said there have been many benefits to getting involved in painting with the group, such as the companionship, improving her skills and the satisfaction of creating something.
“It’s surprising what someone my age can still learn,” she said.
Not everyone in the group is a new artist, however. Marianne Strobl said she has spent years doing “any kind of craft you could imagine,” but has had to give that up recently as her vision has deteriorated; she is now legally blind.
“It was very hard for me to accept that, so I had to find something else,” she said.
Her limitations have not stopped her creative process. She has found that working with encaustic wax, a medium that involves spreading melted wax on paper with an iron or other utensils then polishing the dried wax, has helped fulfill her need for a creative outlet.
And despite shifting to a new medium, the age-old axiom that an artist is her own worst critic still holds true.
“I might have to do 10 different ones to get the sunset I want,” she said.
Ultimately, Switzer said, the benefit of creating art lies in the process itself, regardless of skill level or how long it takes to complete a piece.
“When you put art out there, it’s a part of you that goes on the canvas so it’s an interesting thing that happens,” she said. “You kind of grow a little bit.”
