Editor:
I want to share with everyone the message brought by the 2013 juried Oil and Water art competition initiated by the South Delta Artists Guild: that in today's world, visual art can play a vital role in helping us comprehend our challenges, appreciate newfound beauty, gain fresh insight into weighty problems, and discover the creative talents we all possess which perhaps just need to be tickled into expression.
Working for the first time in cooperation with the Federation of Canadian Artists, the South Delta Artists Guild has put together a superb "show and sale" of just over 100 paintings juried from a record entry of more than 350 from all over the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.
In oil, watercolour, acrylic, collage, and happy mixes of whatever, scores of artists have put up their best work for us to see, enjoy and comment on.
Thanks to the generosity of local sponsors and donors, 20 prizes totalling $3,900 were awarded, the final two going to artists chosen by gallery visitors, to be revealed when Oil and Water closes on Saturday, Aug. 24.
The South Delta Artists Guild has turned the Kiwanis Longhouse, their home since 1999, into a first-class Centre for the Visual Arts, where paintings are hung and lit as well as at any gallery in the Lower Mainland.
The volunteers who run the guild are both artists and professionally competent in their contributions to the non-profit society's success - and we are all rather proud of what we bring to our community.
All the paintings are for sale, and there's work by very well-known and respected artists, and some who are making their way up and will likely surprise you.
Oil and Water juried competition continues at the Kiwanis Longhouse, 56th Street at 18th Avenue, Tsawwassen, through Aug. 24, Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Thursdays to 8 p.m.). Come see and enjoy.
Noreen M. Fairweather
