Paintings, drawings, collage, photographs, and even pottery decorated the walls and floor space of some of the upstairs rooms of Cowichan Lake Community Services on Sept. 27 and 28 for the first ever Youth Art Show put on by the centre.
On opening evening, several of the artists were on hand to share their works with family and friends and to talk about their pieces.
Desiree Karlson, in the 11-14-year-old category, painted a rainbow out of oil pastels.
“All of the pastels were in a colour order,” she said. “And I used all of them in order.”
Her drawing is done on a black background making the bright use of pastels pop. She says that pastels are her favourite medium to work with along with watercolours.
“Because it’s really easy to work with and it’s light. Normal paint is too dark,” she said.
She adds that cats are her favourite thing to draw most of the time.
Karlson’s piece was hung next to her friend Nachaela Henry’s, who also used pastel, but this time to draw a unicorn and a rainbow. The image is also set on a black background.
Karlson says the inspiration for her piece is the fact that she likes unicorns and rainbows. She enjoys taking art classes at school and often doodles in her sketch book, drawing whatever comes to mind. She says she will definitely submit to the show again next year if it runs again.
Sol and O’Carra Rogers are siblings who each submitted more than one piece to the show. Sol submitted both a silkscreen on canvas, and a leaf platter. The silkscreen depicts bright red and yellow flowers on an unframed piece of canvas.
“I was thinking about flowers,” said Sol of the piece.
O’Carra’s pieces were mostly multi-media. One titled “Special Tree” and the other “Below the Sea.” She also submitted a leaf platter with intricate, nature derived designs etched into the surface.
Both artists created their works at Tara Firma Studio in Duncan.
Some of the youth attending the show who had not submitted works this year, say they will next year if organizers decide to run the show again.
One of these youth was Matthew Willard. Willard says he might be moving out of Lake Cowichan in the near future, but if he is around next year he says he would submit something Pokemon related.
“I really wish I submitted something,” said Willard as he browsed through the gallery of works.
“I would trace something . . . my favourite Pokemon, because he’s awesome.”
Willard says that his favourite Pokemon is Bulbasaur, listed as No. 1 in the Pokemon deck.
“It looks like some kind of plant monster,” said Willard. “I would just use pencil, I would use some coloured pencils and stuff and just try to recreate it as much as possible.”
Organizers are pleased with how the event turned out and the enthusiasm of local youth.
They also took advantage of the Art Show to ask local residents for input into the potential uses for the rooms used in the show. You can still voice your opinion by visiting the centre.
The show ran both Thursday and Friday, and organizers, Darlene Tully and Amanda Sawatzky will be putting together a calendar representing as many of the pieces as they can. The calendar, as well as prints of some of the works, will be available on Nov. 8. Order forms are available through Community Services. Calendars are only $15.
For information call:
• Community Services
250-749-6822, or visit comserv.org.