Andre Paulhus and Patty Halliday are first-place prize winners of the 2020 Christmas Card Arts & Word Competition hosted by the Arts Council of Surrey.
Paulhus won for his winning visual art, a watercolour painting dubbed “Playing Peek-A-Boo,” to be featured on the arts council’s annual holiday card, while Halliday earned first place for the verse to appear inside the card.
At the arts council’s gallery at Newton Cultural Centre, contest entries will be displayed in a show of 22 works, from Dec. 1 to 13. Viewing is by appointment only, 13530 72nd Ave., just west of King George Boulevard. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.
Online, the exhibition can be viewed at artscouncilofsurrey.ca/visual-arts.
Halliday’s “Bells” entry features the following words:
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas,
Bells are ringing,
Children singing,
Family’s near,
Christmas is here
Other Surrey-area artists featured in the gallery’s Christmas card exhibition are Doris Biddle, Samantha Dean Eileen Fong, Helmut Gruntorad, Juliana Laskowska, Wendy Mould, Leanna Nguyen, Sharmini Paranavitana, Ken Westdorp and Helga Parekh.
The Arts Council’s “heartfelt competition” gives artists a chance to “show the warmth of the season in their artwork,” according to organizers. “It is always great to see a vast selection of entries being submitted into the contest. A variety of new and fresh exhibitions are now on display at ACS gallery,” says arts council president Carol Girardi.
CLICK HERE to see last year’s competition winners.
The gallery recently wrapped a month-long “Just Surrey” exhibition, and in January will feature the photography and digital art of Jim Hatch.
This year marks the arts council’s 53rd year of “celebrating the visual, performing and literary arts in the City of Surrey.”
Once again, the arts council will be accepting arts supplies or funds for the Surrey’s Future Artists of Tomorrow, for distribution via Surrey Christmas Bureau, on Sunday, Dec. 13 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., with drop-off service in the parking lot at Newton Cultural Centre.
“As many of us know, it is possible to have a wonderful time on a small budget, but there are those less fortunate in our community,” Girardi writes in the December edition of Spotlight, the arts council’s monthly newsletter.
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