A vision that a local artist has had for years is coming together this weekend.
Art Soirée is being held at Cedar Meadows Resort, 1000 Norman St., on Saturday, Nov. 4 from 5:30-9 p.m. It's a celebration of the work of five local female artists and there will be cocktails, canapes, and live music from a Timmins Symphony Orchestra trio.
The soirée is showcasing the work of the Art.On.Her.Sleeves artists, which is made up of Marie-Josée Arsenault, Marie-France Lafleur-Gagnon, Gilberte Mathieu, Dale Morrish and Donna Spears Lauzon.
It's all an idea that Lafleur-Gagnon has been sketching out in her mind for years.
After taking a hiatus from painting for about a decade, she picked her paintbrush back up in 2019.
"So I have all these paintings. I do have an advantage because I get to hang my paintings at Cedar Meadows so most of them sell from business people or leisure people staying here, so they’re out-of-town guests,” she said.
To offer a unique exhibit, she approached other local artists who have different styles and pitched the idea.
A room at Cedar Meadows has been transformed into an art gallery, with white fabric lining the walls where larger paintings hang from gallery wires. Each artist also has their own panel to display smaller paintings.
“Any time there was an event at Cedar Meadows, I was the one behind it. I’m used to creating events and promoting ... but this is my first time creating an art exhibition and it was just to get people to notice us more. The statistics, I think it’s 86 per cent of well-known artists in the world are males. So the females don’t get much recognition and I’m a good artist, so it’s time for us to get together and show people what we can do as well,” she said.
The styles range and include impressionistic and realism, with the artists using a variety of mediums, including watercolour, acrylics and oils.
“Everyone has different styles. Like, Marie-Josee uses old CDs in her paintings as eyes, there’s some recycled materials in some of her art. Everybody has her own unique, different style,” she said.
The prices for the work range from under $100 for smaller pieces to thousands of dollars for larger ones.
“A painting lasts forever. So if you’re out looking for that one person you don’t know what to buy for, something might catch your eye and there’s your Christmas present,” said Lafleur-Gagnon.
The event is also giving back to the community.
Each artist is donating 15 per cent of each artwork sold at the event to a non-profit organization.
Arsenault has chosen the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Lafleur-Gagnon is supporting the MS Society, Mathieu's the Timmins and District Hospital Foundation, Morrish the South Porcupine Food Bank, and Donna Spears Lauzon is donating to the Timmins and District Humane Society.
The event is free to attend. More details are available here.
