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The Pacific Brant
Carving and Art Show
has
its roots in the Parksville/Qualicum area on Vancouver Island. in 1991, volunteers
from the Mid Island Wildlife Watch Society organized the first Brant
Wildlife Festival to be held every April when the Pacific Brant
Geese stop in the area to rest and feed before continuing to their
Arctic breeding grounds.
One
of the events at the Brant Festival was a wildlife woodcarving
competition, sponsored by the Vancouver Island Woodcarvers Club.
In 2006, the festival was taken over by The Nature Trust of
British Columbia and in 2010 the woodcarving show was moved to
Victoria and re-named the Pacific Brant Carving and Art Show.
The
show has grown to be one of Canada's best known wildlife
woodcarving competitions and has been featured in the US
publication "Wildfowl Carving Magazine" for the past
four years.
In recent years, the show has been expanded to include a
woodturning competition as well as including many commercial
booths featuring the Island's top wildlife artists. The show
attracts many popular BC wildlife artists, photographers and
sculptors as
well as giving talented carvers and turners from across the
Pacific Northwest and Canada a venue to display their work and
compete among each other for ribbons and cash prizes.
The
show is held at the
Mary Winspear Centre
in Sidney the weekend after Easter each year. This is one
of the largest wildlife art shows in BC and features the provinces
foremost wildlife artists and photographers. Wildlife woodcarvers from across Canada and the US will compete for ribbons and cash awards
and many of their carvings will be offered for sale.
The woodturning competition added to the show in 2011 attracts top wood turners from across the region.
The show will have silent and live auctions, wildlife art
and photography, bronze sculpture, wildlife woodcarvings,
decorative and functional wood turnings, fish carvings, and seminars
and demonstrations by the artists and carvers. The show will be
open Saturday evening from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and will feature a wine
and cheese service and a live auction of the
cocktail carving entries. Admission to the show is $7 per person.
Two
3-day pre-show
seminars will be held the week of the show. Ontario carver Jeff
Krete will show students how to carve a miniature flying Canada
Goose mounted to the base with a metal primary wing insert. Jeff holds
numerous Best in World titles and has also won the Canadian
championship numerous times. Those who have a passion for
painting with acrylics will have the opportunity to paint a
"Spirit Bear in a Creek-side Setting" with internationally
acclaimed BC artist Terry Isaac. Click on the
'seminars' tab on the next page to register for one of the
seminars. |
