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Rimbey artists to show works

The Rimbey Art Club holds the event and features works from community artists along with junior and senior high school students. The show and sale will be June 4 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., June 5 from noon to 8 p.m. and June 6 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Rimbey Community Centre Art Studio.
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The Rimbey Art Club Show and Sale will feature a variety of works from Rimbey community members and Rimbey Junior/Senior High artists such as Grade 11 students Alex Freeman and Janessa Matthew.

By Adam Eisenbarth

For 44 years the Rimbey Art Show and Sale has been a weekend to highlight for the Rimbey arts community.

The Rimbey Art Club holds the event and features works from community artists along with junior and senior high school students. The show and sale will be June 4 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., June 5 from noon to 8 p.m. and June 6 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Rimbey Community Centre Art Studio with refreshments and door prizes available.

The show will feature watercolours, acrylics, pastels, mixed media, contemporary and modern art.

Dawn Nawrot of the Rimbey Art Club says working with Rimbey Junior/Senior High students gives everyone a good chance to see what the school is doing with their art program. The club has integrated the students into this event for several years but it’s a challenge to get young people to join the club.

“We would like younger members. Kids are busy and they do have their art in school. So to get them to come out one more night a week, with their sports and everything it’s kind of hard to get them involved in that. There are people out there, but to get them together at once is hard.”

Nawrot said there are plenty of benefits to joining.

“We get to go there and make a mess and not have to worry about cleaning it up. You can show and sell your work through the art club with a small discount going to the club. We also bring in eight workshops, four in the fall and four in the spring and the art club members get a discount on the fee for the course.”

Members also get to leave their work in storage at the Rimbey Community Centre, another bonus to joining.

The event’s importance has increased in recent years as artists have a more difficult time selling their work.

“Times are hard, people aren’t buying and those of us who have friends that buy our art, they pretty well have their walls full so we’re hoping to make the public aware that we do exist there.”

The club gets together about three times a week and while Nawrot said it’s a good community, there is room for more members.

“It is (strong) but we would like to see it stronger. There are a lot out there who aren’t members. We are thinking of ways to get more people to get involved.”

You don’t have to be the next Picasso to join either.

“When I joined, I wasn’t even really looking at doing it. My friend said, ‘Why don’t you just come out and give it a try?’ You don’t have to be able to draw to paint. There are things like abstract, paint whatever you feel. Whoever looks at it, I mean art doesn’t have to be really realistic.”