Jurors announce Winners of Shirley Dilworth Jaychuk Competition
at Reception,Thursday, October 18 at 7:30

Jurors Judith Nasby, Doug Kirton, and  Will Gorlitz announced the winners of the Shirley Dilworth
Jaychuk Painting Competition at the Elora Centre for the Arts on Thursday, October 18, 2007.

 
First Place goes to Linda Risacher Copp for this batik piece, "Ahh...Summer"

        
Juror Will Gorlitz congratulates Linda Risacher Copp. Juror Doug Kirton applauds beside Gorlitz.
(Photo: Julie Rene de Cotret)

Jurors Will Gorlitz and Doug Kirton (hidden) congratulate Phil Irish who won Second Place
for "A Modest Ostentation"
(Photo: Julie Rene de Cotret)

Third Place went to David Caesar of Guelph for "Drift"

First place winner of $500.00 is Linda Risacher Copp of Elora for her batik piece “Ahh…Summer”. After completing her fine arts degree Copp worked in sculpture, oil and acrylic before discovering Batik. This exacting resist medium provided a new challenge to an artist intent on capturing the inner light of the landscape. As artist in residence at Queen's University's Herstmonceux Castle in England, Risacher Copp created a sense of Sussex landscapes for her exhibit "A Place in Time" (1997) at Union Gallery, Kingston. In addition to group shows, Linda's major exhibits "A Year on the Grand" (1999) and "Rivers of the Grand" (2004) established her reputation as one of Canada's leading artists using the batik medium.

Second place winner of $300.00 is Phil Irish of Elora, for “A Modest Ostentation” in oil and digital prints. Irish received a BA from the University of Guelph in 1995. Exhibitions of his work have been mounted in public museums, artist-run-centres, and commercial galleries, primarily in Ontario and Quebec. Group exhibitions, across Canada and the United States, have featured his work. He has developed new work during residencies in Newfoundland and Quebec. Irish was the City of Kitchener’s 2006 Artist in Residence. In 2007, his work was short listed for the Kingston Prize, Canada’s national portrait competition.

Third place winner of $200.00 is David Caesar of Guelph for “Drift”, an acrylic work. Caesar studied Illustration at Sheridan College in Oakville and now teaches classes in portraiture and realism in a number of private institutes. Although he has worked in a variety of mediums, his primary body of work is acrylic, with pencil studies being done for each painting. The primary theme that David explores is the connection that humankind shares with Nature, and he’s delighted that the ways to express this connection seem to be endless.

Certificates of Merit went to Sandra Martin of Guelph for “Fragmented Memories”, Ryan Gibson of Guelph for “Late Night Bridgeport Road – Miko Bumps Her Head”, and Riikka Ahlfors for “Blitz”.

Jurors Gorlitz, a Professor at the University of Guelph, Kirton, an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo and Nasby, director of the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, initially chose 20 submissions from 14 artists across the area to be a part of a five-week exhibition in the Minarovich Gallery.

In July of 2007, the Elora Centre for the Arts sent out a call for submissions for the first Shirley Dilworth Jaychuk Painting Competition. Artists from Wellington County and the Regional Municipality of Waterloo were invited to submit representational painting(s) in any paint medium that reflected the small town character and rural environs of the region. Forty-three submissions were sent to the Centre.

The exhibition continues in the Minarovich Gallery at the Centre until November 21st.

For a complete list of artists and their works, please click HERE