Phil Alain has finalized more details about Straight from the Art, his new annual four-day Night of Artists festival. It’s going to be a jam-packed schedule of events from next Thursday to Sunday, but he said that people can already check out the art gallery open now at the Enjoy Centre.

“People can start bidding right away,” he said, adding that it’s all turning out to be a stellar event.

“The calibre of artists is just incredible,” he said. “People coming down can really find some amazing artwork for their homes. That’s why the earlier you come down to the show, the better selection of art you’re going to have.”

He invited the public to check out the works on site or on the event’s Facebook page under Night of Artists. Sales will go to support the Lois Hole Hospital for Women.

His website (at www.nightofartists.com), however, provides a gallery of the artists who will be exhibiting. In addition to Alain himself, the list includes such noteworthy local names as Rick Rogers, Miles Constable and Memory Roth.

“I’m very excited to be included in this group of artists,” Roth said, saying that the prestige also adds a level of prompting her to up her game.

“It’s new and it’s exciting. It’s a challenge that’s motivating me.”

The four-day festival includes all kinds of arts of the visual and performance varieties and everything in between. There is also a photography exhibit called Contrasting Views contributed by The Big Picture.

The opening night gala will feature Edmonton music group The Pulse, an audio-visual experience that Alain says mustn’t be missed.

Lewis Lavoie will also conduct one of his famous live paintings.

The Pulse returns for a command performance during the evening gala on Saturday, during which Laura Dreger will put on a fashion show. Special guests will be there as well.

Finally, the Sunday event has been dubbed “Family Day.” A ladies’ barbershop group called the Alberta Heartland Chorus will entertain while facepainters decorate the kids green for St. Patrick’s Day. KinderMusik will hold music workshops for the kids (aged nine months to seven years).

Plus the art auction has more than 300 original artworks.

The speakers for the Pecha Kucha night still haven’t been announced.

Orchids mean prizes for St. Albert art school

The students at Hidden Talent Fine Art School are strangers neither to flowers nor to winning. At Edmonton’s annual orchid show, the representatives from St. Albert took home 14 ribbons, including four first places, in eight categories.

Instructor Laura Watmough is always thrilled to see her students excel in their lessons. To have them do well in competitions such as this is simply icing on the cake.

“We’re getting a lot more participation and we’re getting a lot more attention,” she said, explaining why more and more of her students are being recognized at the show. The overall quality of the group’s efforts is excellent, she said.

She added that it’s a natural fit for her to use orchids as teaching tools because they lend themselves to great art for numerous reasons.

“You can be very simple to very complex. They’re very easy to separate into petals … and there’s a huge variety from minuscule to very large so you can do an awful lot with your colour.”

Watmough isn’t surprised to see first-timers, even some of her youngest students, see such strong results so early on in their artistic careers.

“I think what happens is they start to discover the process of painting,” she said. “Once they get that, they get very excited and they can tackle any subject. The world of art opens to them.”

Hidden Talent’s students accounted for two first places, one second, and four thirds in the children’s categories, while the adults brought home two firsts and five seconds.

New public art on the way

Samantha Williams-Chapelsky recently won a city commission to produce a new piece of public art, her first by her accounting.

“It’s very exciting,” she said.

The work is set as a legacy project to commemorate the 2012 Special Olympics Canada Winter Games that were partly held here in St. Albert.

She described the work already in progress as a multi-paneled mural digitally printed on high-pressure laminate, another first for the city.

“It’s a really cool material actually. It’s got a really long lifespan,” she said.

Her design will show the spirit and the energy of the athletes, complete with one of the hand-knitted scarves that were handed out to all of the competitors during the event.

She said that those games did much to showcase all that was good about the city.

“I just thought it was such an amazing event and it was so neat that St. Albert put it on,” she said.

The work is scheduled to be unveiled sometime in June.

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