Peace Landscapes Show, Dawson Creek Art Gallery, BC Canada

The Peace Landscape show opened on Friday night. The members of the Peace River Chapter of the Federation of Canadian Artists outdid themselves this time, I can tell you! There were so many exceptional paintings that I really don't know how the judges were able to pick the award winners. While I always love watercolour first (and there were three beautiful works by the very skilled Suzanne Sandboe), there were rich encaustic pieces with beautiful depth and sheen, lino cut prints, mixed media and acrylic paintings by some of my favourite local artists. I love knowing that not only are the paintings incredible, but their creators are some really great people that I have the privilege of knowing.

There were other familiar faces at the gallery on Friday night. My parents came to see the show and I brought my daughters and my mother-in-law, as my in-laws had come from Saskatchewan for a weekend visit that afternoon. With that many supporters at the show that evening, it was not really a surprise when I won the "People's Choice" award for my painting Huckleberry Hill.

I always thought winning a People's Choice award to be a matter of painting something with the most universally appealing subject matter (around here that's usually wildlife) but in my case it was simply a matter of being very well loved. And I can't complain about that!

The Peace Landscape show runs until November 8th, 2013 at the Dawson Creek Art Gallery in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada.