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Check out Cowichan Lake residents' artistic flair

It’ll be a colourful weekend at Lower Centennial Hall, this weekend, during the Kaatza Art Group’s 41st annual Art Show and Sale.
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Local multi-medium artist Carol Rae

It’ll be a colourful weekend at Lower Centennial Hall, this weekend, during the Kaatza Art Group’s 41st annual Art Show and Sale.

One of the many artists to be featured is Kaatza Art Group newcomer Carol Rae; an artist that employs many mediums and techniques.

“I came out of the womb with a paintbrush in hand, and I’ve loved it all my life,” she said. “I do everything from photo realism to total abstract.”

Since moving to Lake Cowichan from Victoria over a year ago, Rae said that she’s tended more toward the abstract.

An odd change, since realistic pieces are easier for the artist.

“To let go of that reality, to make it not look like something, lets go a big part of me,” she said.

Her artwork has also become a lot smaller, as she’s working in a smaller studio than she did in Victoria.

Although she sells pieces, it isn’t all about making a sale, she said.

“The most important thing is to do art with integrity,” she said, adding that she tries her best to not consider whether or not something will sell, before she creates it.

While she works in various art forms, one area she’s quite fond of is mixed media monotypes; a form of print where she paints on glass, and presses paper on it.

“It’s very unpredictable,” she said. “You’ll never know what you’re going to get.”

Print making is a specialty she plans on passing her knowledge of onto those attending the Kaatza Art Show and Sale.

She’ll be demonstrating the art form throughout the weekend, amid other local artists displaying their methods and techniques.

Rae’s demonstration should be of particular interest, as she’s a seasoned art teacher, and still teaches off and on at Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts.

Still very much ingrained within the Victoria arts community, Rae said that the Kaatza Art Group has also been very welcoming, which makes her surprised there aren’t more members.

“I know there are more artists in town,” she said. “Artists tend to hide out a lot.”

Those artists that have chosen to make themselves available will be featured at the Kaatza Art Group, including sculptors, painters, and various other artists.

Unique to this year’s art show will be a wall devoted to the Kinsol Trestle, featuring art by various local area artists inspired by the trestle.

“We are intending to give 20 per cent of the sales to the Kinsol Trust Fund,” Kaatz Art Group president Trudy Kungold Ammann said.

The times the art show will be open are listed on the Family Heritage Days 2011 agenda, in this week’s Gazette.