Adjudication and jurying for the Sooke Fine Arts Show Youth Gallery has completed and has caused a stir among organizers.
Seventy-eight students from Edward Milne Community, Belmont Secondary and Royal Bay schools
have been accepted into the SFAS Youth Art Gallery and 116 artworks will be displayed at the show.
“The quality of the entries was very strong, with more pencil and conte drawings this year,” said Linda
Teneycke, youth art lead. “There were some particularly competent portraits and animal sketches.”
Youth Art winners will have their pieces exhibited in the main art gallery. The first place award goes to Daryana Mielecka for her pen and ink piece, Breathe. Honourable Mentions go to: Isabel Friesen for Critters on Death Row, and to Erin Chisholm for Acceptance.
A new prize category has been opened up for the youth gallery this year, chosen by each of the youth art jurors, Linda Teneycke, Pat Tomkins and Whitney Allen. Juror award winners are: Rio Liu for Ripping My Mask Off, Katelyn Taylor for Still Life, and Allana Garat for her piece, For My Gramma.
“A number of the pieces make social statements and are quite thought provoking,” said Tomkins. “It is so heartening to see young people expressing themselves with such profound creativity.”
This year will see a young guest artist featured in the Youth Art Gallery at the Sooke Fine Arts Show.
Kaidyn Robertson is an enthusiastic, accomplished young man who is a fine example of a youth who has been exposed to art. At nine years old he has performed as one of the orphans in Sooke Harbour Player’s rendition of Oliver, participated in two of the Sooke Youth Show Choir musicals, Snow White and The Grunch, and has shown himself to be equally talented in the visual arts.
As a home schooled student, Robertson has the freedom to approach learning in unique ways and has shown a great interest in science and the theory of the universe. He believes scientific learning is creative and that everything is based on art, so takes his what he learns and models art from a variety of materials.
“Art is all around us. We just need to look, use our imagination, and try to see it,” said Robertson. “Art is free. There are no rules. You can do it however you want.”
Self-described as a ‘mixed media person,’ he learns from other artists by reading books, analyzing art,
and observing techniques used. He then tries those techniques in a variety of media and doesn’t worry about getting it perfect.
“Art is never perfect,” Robertson said. “There is always something to add – something new to do. I
don’t think art should be perfect.”
The Sooke Fine Art Show is July 27 to Aug. 6 at SEAPARC.
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