Fall 2009 Classes

Art classes for kids are beggining this week(end) at the Inspire Studio & Gallery and there are still spots available. The following programs are available on Saturdays:

• Art Inspirations for 4-6 year olds – 1PM-2PM
• Drawing and Painting Dragons and Mythical Creatures for 7-12 year olds – 10AM-11:30AM

Both classes are being taught by Stephanie Della-Longa, an accomplished local artist, and graduate of the Medicine Hat College’s Visual Communications program. On Fridays, there will also be another class entitled Art for Teens for 13+ year olds with Candice Arnold from 6PM-7:30PM. The classes last for 8 weeks and the prices include all supplies.

For more information, visit the Inspire Studio & Gallery classes page or contact Maureen Newton, the owner and coordinator of Inspire, at 403-580-1808. While you are at it, you can also join the Inspire Studio & Gallery Facebook group (there’s lots of information about the classes there).

Alberta Arts Days Poster

Alberta Arts Days is the celebration of art in many forms all across Alberta. From September 18th – 20th there are over 500 events in 100 different communities. Medicine Hat has been chosen to be a focal point for many of the events in Southern Alberta.

Don’t forget, the reception for Maureen Newton’s “This is for the Birds” art show is Thursday September 17th (today) at 7:00pm. Reception is free of charge! The show started August 22nd and will run up until Sunday, October 11th, 2009 – so if you miss the reception, you still have time. It’s definitely worth checking out and events at the Esplanade on the 19th are FREE.

You can visit www.albertaartsdays.ca for more details, they also have a Facebook group where other places are advertising how each community is celebrating. Even though I’ll be doing some work at the Esplanade for the Artisans Fair, I might just go over to the Tyrrell Museum and check out what’s going on over there this weekend. For a full (huge) listing of events and the details, go to the event listing page for Medicine Hat.

Here’s a listing of some of what is going on: THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

With the recently implemented Medicine Hat Media option of using a Web-based feed, I want to mention a feed that I set up a month or so ago to allow listening to hour-long CBC Radio 2 Podcasts of mainly Canadian talent. You may also download the MP3 file directly to your computer from the feed as well.

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/CanadaLiveFromCbcRadio2

One that I would like to mention is the podcast on October 7th, 2008 that features the famous Country artist, Corb Lund of Taber.

Alberta Health Services wants to move Medicine Hat’s Ambulance Dispatch to Calgary. City Council and many hatters believe this is a terrible idea and another snub on our region. A petition on this issue has been created to have AHS re-think their decision.

If we can get a decent amount of signatures on the petition, city council will present this petition to the province. Click here to sign the petition!

The Hat Art Club (also known as the Medicine Hat Art Club) is a non-profit organization for artists in the city. It is also known to most as “what the Cultural Centre by the Medicine Hat College is used for”. Like I stated, the club’s main residence is in the Cultural Centre’s various studios and features many programs including classes and workshops to the public.  Unfortunately I have posted this a little late in the game as most of the classes are ending this year until September but I may post an update later when they begin again.

The mandate of the club is to promote awareness of the various media of visual art and to encourage personal development and growth. The membership costs $100 a year but considering membership gets you studio space and access to things like a printing press, easels, drawing tables, etc. it’s well worth it even without doing any of the classes. Continue reading for the full list of both programs and benefits:

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

Donna Macauley is a visual artist in Medicine Hat. She has taken four years of post-secondary art education including two years of Visual Communications in Medicine Hat and two years of Fine Arts at the University of Calgary.

I first viewed her work hanging in Western Pizza, which was a welcome change to most restaurants having typical and highly recognizable artwork or bland artwork. Donna’s pieces on the other hand are intriguing and what is more, local, and that aspect alone makes it a lot more interesting to me.

Image courtesy of Wallgear.net

Her abstract pieces are definitely my favourites, but she also delves into still life, portraits, and modern renderings.

More samples of her work as well as contact information for Donna Macauley can be found at http://www.wallgear.net or head down to Western Pizza to enjoy some good food and check the art out.

Please first view our news post about Lost & Found.

In brief: the Medicine Hat College’s Visual Communications grad show will be held tonight starting at 7PM. There will be a variety items in the exhibition including art, design, furniture, video, photography and more. There will be entertainment, food, and most likely some alcohol beverages. It will be held in the main Medicine Hat College entrance – it will be hard to miss.

Lost & Found Mailouts - Photo via Flickr

Lost & Found - Image from www.lost-and-found.ca

Download the official press release kit (PDF – 4.89MB)

Visual Communications Students gear up for Lost & Found Art Exhibition April 3-12th, 2009 at Medicine Hat College. Every year the graduating students from the Visual Communications Program put on an end-of-the-year exhibition to showcase their work and the skill gained from the previous three years.

Lost & Found is the name of this year’s final exhibition. The students have chosen to have a “green” theme this year and are looking to recycle many materials used during the duration of the exhibition, including all the cardboard and corrugated board, which is used as decoration throughout the show.

“We are getting recycled cardboard and are planning to reuse it afterwards,” said student, Tobie Laliberte. “I just love working with the cardboard, with its natural look and flexibility.”

Lost & Found Promotional Boxes - Photo via Flickr

This year’s show will feature a wide variety of mediums including painting, graphic design, furniture design, illustration, video and photography. Each student is responsible for their own work to put into the show, along with the preparation involved in hosting their exhibition.

“Every student produces their own original work for the show,” explains Laliberte, ”along with helping plan, promote and prepare for the event itself. The class is split into different committees and the work is divided amongst themselves.”

The Lost and Found Exhibition will take place April 3rd – 12th in the front corridor at Medicine Hat College. Attendance is free.

Check out the Lost & Found Grad Show’s Photostream on Flickr

More information can be found at the official website: http://www.lost-and-found.ca/

Thread pulled from http://www.viscomonline.ca/

I felt kind of guilty by not posting this before with my Mary Anne Barkhouse posting on February 12th. At the time, I didn’t even know Dean Francis was also having a show on the same night. Well, no problem – you might have missed out on the reception but his work is still being displayed until April 1st, 2009.

Light Magic - Dean Francis, 2009 - Photography via the Esplande

His work involves very technical, almost photo realistic oil paintings about wildlife, nature, and the open landscape. In some instances his brush strokes appear to be looser on some paintings, especially when painting grass and tree branches, but in other cases, when he is painting clouds and animals, they seem very detailed and the brush strokes are not as apparent. I believe all the paintings he has in the Esplande are new works from 2008 and 2009.

Dean Francis has been painting for over 30 years, being outside recording and analyzing the landscape, nature and the animals in the outdoors. His paintings are very vibrant which is odd considering much of the subject matter that some would consider “the boring prairies”, but I think he captures the settings in his own “light” and conveys their real beauty without being over the top.

Esplanade Entry
Official Website

Medicine Hat boasts a number of photography websites, but the thing that kind of gets me is that the sites are all generally pretty good. Often times when you search graphic design or website design, or artistry (especially artistry), the sites that come up on the front page generally are not that great in terms of both design, graphical content and running text, but searching “Medicine Hat photography” in Google yields a good batch of results. So here’s a small critique (design in mind) as well as the links:

I kind of understand that photographers want music on their websites to set the mood for their gallery, but on the whole, downloading large music files really bogs down the speed and efficiency at which you can browse their website. Often times the music might not even load up until halfway through your browsing, then you are left wondering where the sound might be coming from.

Five decent photography websites are as follows:

Lynnguistics

Lynnguistics

Pretty good site, my only quarrel is that there is a splash page; which generally people find a nuisance, and the navigation and other elements seem kind of randomly placed; however, once you get into the galleries, everything is filled up nicely with large images to really see what is going on. http://www.lynnguistics.com/main.html

Flare Photo

Flare Photography

A nice elegant site at no mistake. Floral designs give a nice aesthetic and a simple to use navigation. What is more, while most artists and art teachers always seem to strive for seeing the work against a lot of white space, Flare Photo seems to relish using sampled colour from their photos for their borders, which is a nice and fresh change from the norm. http://www.flarephoto.ca/

Gainsboro Studio

Gainsboro Studio

Gainsboro Studio seems to sport a fairly easy to use website. Their photography seems a lot more stand-and-pose than the others in this post, which is not a bad thing at all for family portraits, wedding photos, or whatever you may desire, but that style may lack the certain spark of spontaneity. Great photos though. http://www.gainsboro.ca/

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »