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Newmarket juried art show spotlights 12 local artists, others from across Ontario

Opening night is tonight for the show that will showcase Newmarket as an arts hub, co-directors of town's first juried art show say

Newmarkettoday.ca
October 17, 2019
Kim Champion

The Serpa galleries space is now decked out in a rich cornucopia of artworks and you are invited to the opening night reception tonight, Wednesday, Oct. 16, to celebrate the first Newmarket Juried Art Show at Old Town Hall.

“The arts are integral to strong, resilient communities, which are increasingly important in the face of a changing climate and other global challenges,” show co-directors David Kempton and Peggy Stevens said in a news release. “The hope is to showcase Newmarket as an arts hub, both to the province and to itself. Newmarket has a thriving collection of artists, as shown by the annual Art Walk and Studio Tour put on by the Newmarket Group of Artists.”

In a juried art show, artists submit works that qualified jurists then select for inclusion in the exhibition. Jurists are generally senior artists with teaching, curatorial or gallery experience.

The opening night event offers visitors a chance to view 46 artworks selected by a three-member jurists’ panel that span paintings, photography, sculpture, mixed media, ceramics, and other media by 29 artists from across southern Ontario, including a dozen local artists from Newmarket and Aurora.

One of those artists, Sheila Romard, who raised her family in Newmarket and now calls Vaughan home after living in Prince Edward County for several years, is excited about the show, and the feeling of coming home for the first time in a long time.

Romard’s painting entitled, River, is one of the featured artworks in the show. It is a 36-inch by 48-inch oil on canvas. Her work is described as contemporary impressionistic.

“That painting is based on a photograph that dear friends of mine took when they were in the Rockies, it’s the third version,” Romard said, who first started painting when she was a young girl. “I’m really focusing on making my art into a business.”

The last six to seven years have been prolific for Romard, who works from a home studio. Once her daughter went off to university, she had more time to devote to her craft, and took workshops and began working under several artists in the Barrie area.

She is active in promoting her art on social media, including Etsy, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram under her own name, as well as selling canvas and framed prints online at Fine Art America.

“I love the landscape in Ontario, we have such beautiful landscapes,” said Romard of the subject she likes to paint in oil and watercolour. “But it could also just be a floral arrangement, sometimes from people who have given me little gifts, I love to paint those as well.”

Still life and landscapes often transpire onto Romard’s canvas, sometimes after an outing of en plein air (outdoor) painting in the great outdoors, or from a photograph she’s taken of a scene that caught her eye.

“I do a little bit of plein air painting. Sometimes it’s exciting to get outdoors, do a sketch and bring it back to the studio to decide if it’s a larger painting,” she said.

She was accepted recently into a juried en plein air weekend adventure organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

“We spent two beautiful days working outside with some fantastic artists, it was very exciting and such a different dynamic working outside than in a studio. You have all the elements, the wind, sun, whatever it is that day, it’s just a thrill to do it.”

Romard’s work is in private collections throughout the country. Her note to potential buyers at Fine Art America says this:

“I've loved to paint since I can remember. My favourite medium is a toss-up between oil on canvas and watercolour. The flexibility, depth and vividness of oil keeps me hooked, but the spontaneity of watercolour is exciting and can be astonishing. ...This is a work in progress, but I'm currently working to paint every day.”

The Town of Newmarket is a partner in the inaugural local show and sale, along with the support of Serpa galleries’ curator Logan Bales.

Cash awards will be given out to selected artists at the reception for excellence in a variety of categories of artwork, as well as a Juror’s Choice award. A special award will also be presented to an online virtual-reality gallery for one artist.

All award money and other support was donated by local citizens and small businesses, including the jurors’ choice award ($250, sponsored by the co-directors), best painting ($100, sponsored by Jackie Playter), best photograph ($100, sponsored by Fuse Chamber), best sculpture ($100, sponsored by Steve Whitfield), best pottery or ceramics ($100, sponsored by Linda Kempton), and best mixed media ($100, sponsored by Jackie Playter).

In total, 223 works of art were submitted by 81 artists from across Ontario for inclusion in the show and sale.

Judging was based on digital images sent by the artists, and the images were anonymized. An initial allocation of prizes was decided from those images, too.

The jurists’ panel included Diana Orris, Brendon Mcnaughton and Paul Eekhoff.

Newmarket’s inaugural juried art show and sale opened Friday and runs until Oct. 26 at Old Town Hall, in the Serpa galleries space, 460 Botsford St., Newmarket.