Water is the theme of the Art Impact exhibit, organized by the Artists on Elgin to celebrate the opening of the Vale Living With Lakes Centre. Sudbury artist Ray Laporte’s painting of a swimmer won the top prize in the juried art show.
Winners were announced Thursday evening at a reception at the Ramsey Lake Road centre, the new home of Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit.
Jurors selected 50 finalists from more than 230 submissions in various media. The finalists were on exhibit at Tom Davies Square earlier this month. Citizens were invited to vote for their favourite painting or photograph for the People’s Choice Award. The popular choice was a winter landscape by Catherine MacDonald’s titled The Mighty Huron Push.
Laporte is an accomplished and well known artist in Sudbury who studied printing and printmaking at Cambrian College and has a bachelor degree in art education from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design.
An oil painting by Frank Danielson titled Killarney won second place and Lionel Venne’s watercolour collage titled Crystallinus won third place. Veteran Elliot Lake artist Linda Finn and Kamin Lavoie, a Grade 11 student at Ècole Secondaire Macdonald-Cartier received honourable mentions.
And although Laporte’s painting was the choice of the jurors, another painting was selected by Living With Lakes staff to hang permanently in the building. The Artists on Elgin purchased Sun Worshipers/Révérence au soleil, an acrylic painting of water lillies, by Julie Courtemanche for the new centre.
Courtemanche, the wife of former mayor David Courtemanche, teaches visual arts at College Notre Dame.
The winners and the finalists will be on exhibit at the Living With Lakes Centre until June 30. Winning paintings can be viewed at http://www.artistsonelgin.ca/artist.
The Northern Artist Gallery is a not-for-profit organization that promotes Northern Ontario’s artists. It also sponsors the Picture Our Lakes contest. Finalists are on view at the Arts on Elgin shop on Elgin Street until July 2. Favourite photographs will be feature on the Picture Our Lakes calendar.
