A new exhibit at the Rollin Art Centre features 16 locals artists, each displaying their own creative renditions of the season of spring.
“SPRING – Seasonal Imagery” includes artists such as Janice Sheehan, Mae LaBlanc, Jim Sears, Joan Akerman, Jayant Chaudhary, Cathy Stewart, Cheryl Brennan, Cynthia Bonesky, Mary Ann McGrath, Cheryl Frehlich, Dodie Manifold, Patrick Larose, Phyllis Davenport, Judith Rackham, Susie Quinn and Karen Poirier.
The exhibit runs until June 18. Join us the gallery this Saturday, May 28 for refreshments and an opportunity to meet these talented artists.
WORKSHOPS
Two-Day Watercolour Workshop at Rollin Art Centre — June 1 and 2 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — The Basics of Colour Theory & Pigments
Ionne McCauley is an accomplished artist, quilter, and author currently living in Qualicum Beach. Ionne has taught colour workshops for over 25 years. In this workshop you will learn about value, hue, tone, shade, and saturation. Explore the learnable magic of watercolour paints, how to achieve glowing colours and how to choose (and use) pigments for exciting colour combinations. Workshop fee is $150. Supply fee (to be paid to the instructor) is $20 and kit fee includes all paints used in class, paper to start and a grayscale. Register at Rollin Art Centre at 250-724-3412. Numbers are limited.
One-Day Acrylic Workshop at Rollin Art Centre — Saturday, July 16 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. — Landscapes Made Easy
Susan Schaefer will guide you through this, discussing what makes a good composition while simplifying your landscape. Schaefer has been a professional artist for the past 20 years and has taken workshops from some of Canada’s finest artists. Workshop fee is $115 +GST. A supply list is available. Register at Rollin Art Centre at 250-724-3412. Numbers are limited.
LOOKING FOR ARTISTS
Our Annual Solstice Arts Festival is back!
After two years of hiatus due to COVID-19, we are back and ready to celebrate the arts. Join us Saturday, June 18 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Rollin Art Centre. Spaces are available on our terrace or in our two gardens for artists and artisans to set up a table or an easel or demos of the artwork you create.
If you are interested in displaying at this year’s free family event, call the Rollin Art Centre 250-724-3412 for more info. Spaces are $25 for the day.
SUMMER TEAS
Teas on the Terrace are back at the Rollin Art Centre and tickets are now on sale.
Tickets are $20 for our strawberry teas and $25 for a High Tea, served on a two-tiered plate. Join us on the terrace, under the canopy of the trees, sipping tea, listening to local musicians and sampling a selection of snacks.
The first event will be a Strawberry Tea on July 7 featuring the Folk Song Circle.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
June 1 and 2 – Workshop – “Watercolour – The Basics of Colour Theory and Pigments”
June 18 – Solstice Arts Festival – Spaces available for artisans
June 22 to July 22 – “Women’s Work” – group exhibit – Sue Thomas, Jillian Mayne, Colleen Clancy and Ann McIvor.
July and August – Teas on the Terrace – Tickets available now.
Melissa Martin is the Arts Administrator for the Community Arts Council, at the Rollin Art Centre and writes for the Alberni Valley News. Call 250-724-3412. Email: communityarts@shawcable.com.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
