Help Wanted

Position Opening for Website Administrator of Bio Pages on Focus Art Website..

Focus Art needs someone who will input info onto the bio pages of the website. This is not a demanding job. The setup work is done ; members forward their bio to you as well as 4 images. It may require a little interaction with the members but new members purchasing a bio page are few and far between.

Qualification : a basic ability to follow a template on the computer
a willingness to help members get their info on the web.

Interested parties please respond before May 30th, 2009.

Please contact Rose at rosedesn@cogeco.ca if you're interested.

Be a part of the action.

Deb's Note: You MUST be a member of Focus Art!

Farmer's Market

Focus Art have been invited to participate in the Cornwall Farmers Market which is located in George Assaly Laneway Pitt St between 2nd & 3rd Streets. The season began May 16th and runs to Oct 31.

The market is open every Sat. morning from 8am. To 1.pm..

1 stall (10x10) = $25.00/day or $100.00/month paid to Farmer's Market in advance.
1 stall (10x20) = $40.00/day or $160.00/month paid to farmer's Market in advance.

Artists interested could double up and this would defray the costs It appears to be a very good venue, and the committee for Farmers Market are committed to make this an annual event, so far the advertising has been exceptional.

There is a one time membership fee of $35.00 which Focus Art could take on with the understanding that our banner and advertizing material be displayed. Before we commit to this we must have assurances from at least 10 artists in Focus Art that they are definitely interested this venue.

If you are interested contact me, Pat Campbell at patcamp@live.com before next weekend..

Deb's Note: You can click here to see a short news video on the Market and get an idea of the stalls.

Someone Else We Need to Thank ....

There is someone in Focus Art who does an incredible amount of work behind the scenes. She works incredibly hard for us and most of us have never even seen her! The lady I'm talking about is D'Arcy's wife, Sherry.

Thanks for all you do for us Sherry!

What Happened at the May 6 Meeting?

D’Arcy opened the meeting at 7:15, welcoming the crowd of members and new people. He introduced Karen Burns, who was given two great rounds of applause by everyone. Karen is the reason we were at Cornwall Square and she told us that they had received "a ton" of good responses from the public about our exhibition and Calendar Show. (Photo to the left shows D'Arcy speaking to our hero, Karen, after the show.)

Cornwall Square has been very generous to Focus Art members - giving us this venue free of charge, advertising in the papers free of charge, advertising on the radio free of charge and advertising on their billboard outside free of charge. They provided the chairs and tables for the General Meeting, free of charge, and they’ve done everything to make Focus Art's stay there a fantastic experience. Focus Art and it’s members cannot thank Cornwall Square enough.

Many thanks to Tim Horton’s of the Square for supplying us with coffee and timbits at no charge for the meeting.

The expected closing will be on Saturday (May 9) instead of Sunday, as Sunday is Mother’s Day. So, all artwork must be picked up on Saturday, May 9, 2009 before 5:30. D’Arcy says that anything left afterwards becomes his and he will not apologize for taking it home. ;-)

It was also discussed briefly that during upcoming school holidays, when kids are running around - such as March Break, etc, we could create some workshops at the Square in which would involve children making art with us. There is good potential for other exercises.

Certificates were handed out to the artists of the Twelve Chosen Calendar Paintings as each artist stood and presented their artwork to the group - and also posed for a photograph to be taken by Adele, who was the official photographer of the event. (Even though D’Arcy assured Deb that she wouldn’t have to do this beforehand when questioned about the "standing and presenting" part of his email notice. But she *did* survive the ordeal.) Brunhilde and Jane were absent.

Sales of the calendars will be in September and will be held at Cornwall Square.

Bernie Carriere gave an excellent talk on photography. Bernie is a fairly new member and teaches both philosophy and photography at the Cornwall Public Library. Call the Library in August if you’re interested in attending the classes in September. Currently, they are being held free of charge.

Bernie explained many of the basic guidelines in photography. Breaking the rules makes a great photograph but you have to know the rules to break. Another thought Bernie shared was that what you have in your head is more important that what’s in your hands. He also explained lenses, telephotos vs. zooms, and cleaning them, as well as the three most important accessories you can buy for your camera - tripod, polarizing filter and a lens shade. Many thanks to Bernie for the very interesting talk! If you’d like to learn more about using your camera, take Bernie’s classes in September!

The 50 / 50 draw was won by Micheline Tanguay, who took home $36.00.

After the meeting, Bonnie Baker of Seaway Custom Framing provided quite a few brushes, mats and markers for everyone to take as samples. Thanks very much, Bonnie! Bonnie is also a new member to Focus Art. (Seaway Custom Frames is located at 14705 County Rd. 2, Ingleside. If you'd like Bonnie's telephone number, contact me.)

Next meeting will be held as usual at the Centre Charles-Emile Claude on Chevrier.

Below are several shots of the winners receiving their certificates and presenting their paintings to the group.

See you soon,

Deb

Update on Family Art Day at the Park

Family Art Day @ the Park: Sunday July 26 1-4p.m.
to be held @ Lamoureux Park around the bandshell .

As the featured attraction, Focus Art Association members will be the main contributor for this new city event. It will be advertised in tourist literature, etc. Therefore, if we have enough artists who respond to this email invitation by May 18th , then Focus Art will approach the city coordinator for the go ahead. Possibly other groups could follow; The chess group has shown interest in participating.

Let's make ART visible again in Cornwall!

Artists are invited to set up their own individual space to interact with children with their given medium of choice. This is an interactive set-up not a display of art wares only. Each participating artist must comply to this venue to be engaged with the children visiting their set-up table. The same rules regarding vending apply here as @ the Square. No sales on the premises.

Please contact Charlene for further info or to sign up. *** Include your name and a brief description of your activity. If participation is/not satisfactory in numbers an email will be sent on May 21 following the executive meeting of May 20th.

*** If you don't have Charlene's address, contact Deb for it. It's not being posted here to save Charlene from being spammed.

Deb

Helping Children Learn

The Twelve Chosen

The results for the 12 chosen artworks to appear on the 2010 were supposed to be revealed at the May 6 meeting but the local newspaper, Standard Freeholder, wanted to publish them. Since we don't often get exposure from them, the names were released.

I have 12 very low quality shots that I've cropped from shots I took at the show. I'm warning you now that they are not good quality, but if you want great quality, buy the calendar! It'll be on sale in the fall. Cornwall Square has already agreed to let us set up a table and sell them in the mall.

If I can get small shots of each from the official photographer, I will replace these. (And to be fair, I did not include the shot I have on file of my own, but rather kept it as a cropped one - same as the others. Is that not noble or what???)

Congratulations to the 12 public-voter-chosen pieces of art. Actually, it's congratulations to everyone who exhibited - the walls were filled with very fine art! All of which was shown to a very many people!!

Here, in numerical order, are the calendar pieces;