Is Winter finally over?

Winter Splendour
30 x 36
Oil on Canvas
 Bill Shurniak Collection

I haven't spoken of my solo exhibition at the Shurniak Art Gallery which ran for 2 and a half months.  The gallery is a world class establishment that houses Mr. Bill Shurniak's private art collection which has been garnered together from his travels all over the world.  Bill has worked in Hong Kong and Australia for extended periods of time and still travels there extensively for work purposes. I was delighted to be invited to show there and received many favourable comments on my work.  There was visits from many parts of North America and one from Europe as well!  I think if our winter hadn't been so harsh there would have been even more visitors.  I had a delightful surprise awaiting me when  I travelled down to gather up the paintings to bring home.  Mr. Shurniak had decided to purchase one of my personal favourites for his private collection! I have posted the painting above for your interest. It was painted maybe 7-8 years ago when I still lived in The Pas, Manitoba and is a memory of a wonderful time my family spent walking in the forest on Boxing Day. This could be my last winter depiction for awhile, the snow is finally starting to melt around here and its high time.

Fractured

Fractured (First Day of Spring) Oil on Canvas

Crystal and I are back from my opening reception at the Shurniak Art Gallery in Assinaboia, Sk. We went down on Thursday with 28 of my paintings, arriving around noon.  Bill Shurniak met us and we had a lovely lunch with him and his staff.  Unfortunately he was feeling a bit under the weather, his doctor diagnosing acute bronchitis and probably a touch of this horrible flu that is going around.  Despite that he was the perfect host as usual and made us all quite comfortable and at ease.  After lunch Gail, the general manager of gallery, and Sandra helped Crystal and I get going on hanging the paintings.  Once they saw we getting into the groove of it they left us to our own designs and we managed to hang everything in an appropriate manner.  Hanging a show is an Art in of itself we found out!  Friday afternoon at 3 pm the reception got under way.  My friends Kevin and Michele Ackerman provided wonderful music with compositions for guitar and flute. The music set a wonderful ambience to the whole affair, thanks you two! Good friends Dean and Barb Bauche showed up a tad late but their  presence was greatly appreciated.  We estimate that around 80 people showed up for the lovely reception, which featured a wonderful variety of pastries and refreshments, something that never goes unnoticed by yours truly.  I managed to sample every delicasy at least once.
I am told that my paintings made quite an impression on the public, many people commenting on the colourfulness of the show.  I cannot say enough about the uniqueness of this world class gallery in the middle of the Saskatchewan prairie, Bill Shurniak has accomplished a wonderful thing here and I encourage everyone to make an effort to get down there and visit the gallery.  Thanks Bill for this honour of "hanging out" in your space!