Saturday, March 20, 2021

Feature Artist Archives


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JUNE'S FEATURE ARTIST - CONNIE LASKO

Connie is a small town Saskatchewan wildlife artist: she calls  Mistatim home. Her main medium is pastel pencil, but also uses coloured pencils and charcoal. 

Connie particularly enjoys painting bears. This is the painting that ended up landing on the cover of the Bowhunters magazine. 


Connie has had also her work featured on the cover of the Canadian Mental Health Calendar.




Connie has created greeting cards using images of her paintings.




And she has had prints of her original painting produced. Connie is a frequent contributor to the SWAA Members Online Store each month - be sure to watch for her work there. 


Connie went home with a few ribbons after The Reflections of Nature Show 2019. A first in class and third in division for Mammals, Open for "Hunting Brothers" 




She also earned a third place in the Birds, Open class for "Raven Watch" 





Connie Lasko - a wildlife artist who wants to bring a bit of beauty to the world. And she is open for commissions.







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Angela Bueckert
 
I am located in the lower mainland, BC and grew up on Vancouver Island with the mountains and sea as my primary natural world inspirations. I often visit my mother who currently lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. 

Growing up both watching Japanese animation and loving outdoors, I was often aiming to work in digital media but also interested in watercolours and photography. 


My subjects range from dragons to little birds and endangered species subjects, which I also upload on print on demand sites like Redbubble to help keep costs down while allowing my work to be available on various products only when people order them (better for environment as well, no "min orders" that may go unsold). 

As a new mother to a 2 year old, my recent focus has been on young children focused work and have been integrating picture book styles, as well as creating some colouring pages.
 



I'd like to get into preschool aged educational picture work for this season. If you want to see more of my work, you can follow my Instagram and Facebook page. 

Instagram Illustration: 
Instagram Photography: 

Shopping:

Redbubble shops: 



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Prairies North Magazine did an article on John Waddington last spring (2020). Be sure to pick up a copy for yourself, it's a great read.






Friday, April 6, 2018

VISIT THE SWAA MEMBERS' MONTHLY SALE PAGE Click here

FEATURE ARTIST - REFLECTIONS OF NATURE 2021
Sarah Lightfoot Wagner - Click here

February's SWAA Feature Artist: Carver Bob Gander

Bob was introduced to diamond willow carving while in Boy Scouts, and his first project was a diamond willow hiking staff. Shortly after returning to the Prairies in 1984, he found some excellent diamond willow along the banks of the South Saskatchewan River here in Saskatoon. This re-ignited his interest in carving, once again concentrating on functional objects such as walking sticks, cribbage boards, lamps, letter openers and many others.





With encouragement from a friend, he joined the Saskatchewan Woodworkers Guild the mid-1990s. This broadened his appreciation for woodworking more generally, and it opened up the opportunity to learn from other carvers, particularly Ron Davidson. Many of these short carving courses involved caricatures and animal subjects. 

Bob has also been influenced by the work of well-known sculptors such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth; Jamie Russell, a well-known local furniture maker; and by Inuit sculpture and Plains native art styles, particularly the more stylized representation of subject material.




Diamond willow lends itself to carving highly stylized forms, although it restricts them to long thin shapes usually. More recently, he joined SWAA and was exposed to sculpture using stone as the medium. 




This also introduced him to carving abstract forms. His style with human figures and animals has evolved to being representational rather than detailed realism. He also enjoys geometric forms in part because of the challenge to visualize them and in part because of the strong lines and flowing movement that is inherent to them. 

He has won several ribbons at Reflections of Nature shows here in Saskatoon as well as at the Brant Festival in Parksville, B.C. and at the International Wood Carving Congress in Ohio.

- Connie Lasko
- Martie Giesbrecht
- Beth Campbell
- Colin Chatfield
- John Vancleemput
- Harvey Rebalkin