Clockwise from top left, Chris Hodge, Joanne Rivers-Wing, Brenda Lamb and Kamila Badura shown at the ARC Creative Studios. They are among some of the artists featured in the Allen Sapp Gallery show on now. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Community of artists

ARC Creative Studios artists showcase talents

Jul 13, 2021 | 5:19 PM

ARC Creative Studios artists march to their own beat, albeit quietly, as they create in their upstairs studios off 101st Street in downtown North Battleford.

The collective plans to have a show of their works in August in the studios now that the province’s COVID-19 restrictions have lifted.

Many of the artists are also taking part in an exhibition at the Allen Sapp Gallery on now until July 17.

Juanita Aucamp, Audrey Fineday, Kamila Badura, Heather Hochbaum, Marie Barker, Chris Hodge, Michael Brokop, Brenda Lamb, Sherron Burns, Barb O’Neal, Joe Campbell, Joanne Rivers-Wing, and Rosemarie Stadnyk are all displaying their recent works in the show.

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Brenda Lamb has several of her pottery pieces featured in the exhibition. The North Battleford resident has been honing her pottery skills for the past 20 to 30 years.

“When I do it it is so relaxing,” she said. “You can forget about all the troubles you have.”

Lamb also enjoys the glazing process and the surprise of seeing how the project turned out after taking it out of the kiln.

“You never know what you are going to get,” she said with a laugh.

Kamila Badura likes to focus on creating mixed media projects. Originally from Poland, Badura has been dedicating her life to art since she was a child.

“My passion is art,” she said.

Badura said she wants to leave it up to the beholder to look for whatever meaning they find in her art. She describes one of her pieces in the ARC studio, called “Petrify,” as symbolic of two people who “petrify in their relationship.”

Badura said when she was growing up in a Communist country, it was difficult to access art materials. So her father gave her found materials, such as wood or rocks, she could use in non-traditional ways to create her art.

“Experimenting brought me this idea,” she said. “Then, I found out it is very popular. It’s called mixed media now.”

Badura also enjoys creating what are known as alcohol-ink paintings, featured in the ARC show at the Allen Sapp Gallery.

Joanne Rivers-Wing has some of her watercolour paintings on display in the exhibition. She also enjoys creating pottery. Originally from Regina, she has lived in the Battlefords since the late 1980s.

Rivers-Wing describes her pieces in the show as abstract-style paintings focusing on landscapes. She has been working on this type of art for about about 20 years or so. Rivers-Wing started by taking a class around 1990, and her work grew from there. She started working on pottery since the late 1990s. Rivers-Wing said she likes to dabble a little bit to keep trying something new.

“I experiment quite a bit,” she said. “I have taken lots of workshops.”

Chris Hodge submitted four portraits using acrylic on board, mounted on plywood, for the gallery show. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., he has been living in the Battlefords since 2004.

He said one of his portraits was actually of a figure model from the Internet.

“I emailed her and asked if I could use it for a painting, and when I finished I sent her a .JPG of it,” Hodge said.

One of the other portraits he created was based on a portrait of artist Georgia O’Keeffe by photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

Hodge said he quite enjoys making portraits because he enjoys the challenge.

“I did abstract art for years,” he said. “I’ve found that it was getting too easy for me.”

Hodge describes creating portraits and figure art as perhaps a little more rigorous and involved.

“The human figure is very difficult to draw and paint. It was a challenge to do it,” he said. “And portraits are even more so.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow