Alex Sawatzky, a Lake Cowichan youth, is the first to submit a piece of art to the Community Services Youth Art Show which is set to take place September 28 and 29 at the Community Services building on Point Ideal Road.
Sawatzky didn’t originally create his piece for the art show, instead he says it started as a school project.
“It was a poster contest,” he says. “But it didn’t win so I just thought it would be fun to put it in the art show.”
Sawatzky’s piece is a mountain scene done with Plasticine. He has used green, blue, brown, and white to create a textured landscape portrait, complete with a depiction of the Cowichan River running through one corner.
“When I thought of the idea,” Sawatzky explains, “I was sitting at the carpet and I was sitting next to a window. So I started looking out the window and I saw a lot of mountains.”
It took Sawatzky two days to finish his creation, which as of yet has no name, but he says he may try to think one up. “It took about an hour to get the idea,” he says. “But then I just started making it.”
He says he first drew the outlines of the mountains and then began to fill in the colour with the Plasticine. He says he used his fingers and a pencil to create texture and detail for the river and the greenery which represents grass and trees.
“I just surrounded green on the mountains,” he says. “I thought that would be easier than drawing all the grass or the trees or something. For a little bit of that I didn’t have much time so I just did it quick with my fingernail instead of just dragging my pencil. That would take a little bit longer than just my fingernail.”
Sawatzky’s creation is done on a piece of thick cardboard. “It’s a lot heavier,” he says of the piece, “from the Plasticine.”
Sawatzky says he will not be selling his creation at the art show, however, organizer Darlene Tully says that youth who enter their works into the show do have the option.
“If they want to sell their work, they can,” she says. “And if they want to sell copies we will be taking orders during the show.”
Community Services staff will scan the artwork and absorb the cost of doing so and will work out some kind of price sharing with the artist when it comes to selling prints of their originals.
“For the originals it’s up to the artist how much they want to charge and they get to keep the money,” Tully explains.
As part of the show, there will be a peoples’ choice award given to four contributors out of each age category. The winners will be featured in a calendar that will be printed and ready to sell by mid October. The price of the calendar has yet to be determined, but will mostly be set to recover printing costs with whatever profits that are made being put back into the youth drop-in program.
Age categories are 10 and under, 11-14, and 15-18.
Local youth are welcome to submit paintings, sketches, drawings, pastels, photography, and any art that can be hung on the wall.
“Everyone that has come to the drop-in program on Fridays have said they will submit something,” says Tully, but she adds that she and the other organizers are hoping that more youth in the community will submit their work as well.
The show will take place upstairs in the Community Services building. The deadline for submissions is September 12.
The gala opening will take place on Thursday evening, September 27, however the show will be open all day Thursday and Tully says she is hoping that teachers at the various schools in the area take advantage of the opportunity to bring their classes down to take in the show.
“The Friday is a school professional development day,” she says. “So we are hoping that families will come down.”
For more information, call Cowichan Lake Community Services at 250-749-6822.