Since 1996, the Huntsville Festival of the Arts has selected a local artist to create a unique piece of art to grace the front of the Festival’s brochure and other marketing material. This year’s Festival Artisan is Catherine Luce.
Luce is a Huntsville-based artist who paints whimsical, surreal watercolours using Muskoka’s landscape as her inspiration. The Festival piece she has created is an as-yet-untitled watercolour featuring a canoe-full of musicians and performers flying high above Huntsville’s Town Hall and the Algonquin Theatre.
“They gave me free creative rein. I love that,” said Luce. “I thought about what the Huntsville Festival of the Arts means to me. I wanted to convey a sense of excitement of bringing world class musicians to Huntsville.”
Painting by Catherine Luce. Photo: Jon Snelson.
“I started out sketching musicians because I do love to do characters with a bit of surrealism. I brainstormed some ideas and then I thought of what a great image the canoe is for this area and then the idea came to me, ‘what if we brought world class musicians to Huntsville in a flying canoe?’ I liked that image and could see it in my head, so I worked on it until I could get the elements to work together as a design.”
I was really excited (to be contacted). I love this type of commission – I love music and I love making illustrations for music events and community events. It’s right up my alley. And it’s a real honour because there are a lot of great artists around Huntsville.
Catherine Luce, 2016 HFA Festival Artisan
“We ask the artists to create something specifically for the Festival,” said HFA president Karen Cassian. “All we tell them is it should be something music related and we give them the dimensions – a larger version of our brochure cover. Since I’ve been with the Festival, we haven’t been disappointed, and we are really pleased with Catherine’s painting.”
The Festival Artisans are given a period of several months to complete the image – Luce said it took her about three weeks to complete the painting once she had the design in mind. Artists receive $500 for the commissioned art plus thanks in the HFA brochure and space to display their work at the Festival’s annual May Marché.
The original artwork is included in the silent auction at the Marché, which is the Festival’s major annual fundraiser.
History of the HFA Festival Artisan
The Huntsville Festival of the Arts was founded in 1993. They did have a Festival Artisan that first year who created a piece featuring loons morphing into music notes, said Festival general manager, Rob Saunders, but for the next several years, the brochure featured more general images. Then, in 1997, the HFA asked local artist Kate Santos to create the cover. She continued to create the art for the next two years.
In 2000, the Festival invited submissions, selecting a photo of a woman’s back by Laura Bombier. It was the only year they accepted submissions after recognizing that the selection process is subjective and they didn’t want to offend anyone whose artwork was not selected. In 2001, the Festival began inviting one artist each year to create a piece for the cover. (See below for the first 20 years of HFA brochure covers.)
“We’ve had all genres, from woven to pottery to art to computer graphics – they aren’t always actual pictures,” said Saunders. “In our marketing for the year we try to incorporate the whole work, its colours, or bits and pieces of it wherever we can. Catherine’s piece is beautiful and will be lots of fun for us to play with.”
The Festival Artisans to date have been:
1997, Kate Santos, Peter & the Wolf (original pastel)
1998, Kate Santos, original pastel
1999, Kate Santos, Summer Swing (original pastel)
2000, Laura Bombier, photograph
2001, Beverley Hawksley, original painting
2002, Brenda Wainman Goulet, Bev Easton, and Paul Crosby, original sculpture and computer graphics
2003, Jenny Kirkpatrick, multi-layer photograph
2004, Charles Knapp, Waterfall (stained glass)
2005, Gus VanBaarsel, Loonlight Sonata (carved/sandblasted wood)
2006, Joseph Reijnen, fine metal stage and performers
2007, Bill Urban, original painting
2008, Marni Martin, woven image
2009, Eric Lindgren, pottery
2010, Terry Gill, original painting
2011, Kelly Holinshead, Woodland Dancer (photograph and computer graphic)
2012, Carolyne Wagland, computer animation
2013, Col Mitchell, The Raven, (original painting)
2014, Susan Higgins, blown glass
2015, Pam Carnochan, Our World’s A Stage (watercolour with wool)
2016, Catherine Luce, original watercolour
Look for the Festival’s 2016 schedule and details for May Marché on their website soon. Learn more about Catherine Luce here or visit her upcoming show at the Huntsville Public Library in March and April.
20 years of Huntsville Festival of the Arts brochures, 1993-2012
I would love to see a poster of the next 10 covers, as shown, since l have the poster of the first 10 plaqued and hanging in my hall. I think it would be a great fundraiser for the festival, something anyone could afford to buy.