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Residents to create art while supporting charities

It is possible that within the next two weeks 50 residents from each of Kamsack, Togo and Norquay will have made their own beautiful oil paintings while raising about $1,000 for charities in each of those communities.

            It is possible that within the next two weeks 50 residents from each of Kamsack, Togo and Norquay will have made their own beautiful oil paintings while raising about $1,000 for charities in each of those communities.

            It all has to do with “paint night.”

            Paint night events have been organized in several communities, Dustin Wilson of Kamsack said last week. Such an event was held at the Kamsack Legion Hall on January 29 and 30 when all 100 spots were sold out.

            Basically, what happens at a paint night event is that participants pay a fee that covers the cost of paints, brushes, canvasses and everything else that might be needed to create a work of art and a portion of the fee goes to a charity.

During the session, an instructor leads everyone through a step-by-step process towards creating a painting.

At Kamsack in January, the instructor was Dustin Wilson, who has agreed to hold three more paint nights this month: in Togo May 6 at the Togo Hall, in aid of the Togo Figure Skating Club; in Kamsack on May 12 at the Kamsack Legion Hall, in aid of Kamsack Minor Ball, and at Norquay on May 13, at the Norquay Legion Hall, in aid of Sarah Auchstaetter, a youth who is about to go to Europe this summer to play hockey.

The fee of $45 per person pays for all the supplies needed to create the painting, raises funds for the charity and provides for a free beverage during the session, Wilson said. Entry is restricted to 50 persons at each of the sessions.

Paint nights have really caught on, he said, adding that there is a company which conducts a business with that name, but he is not affiliated with it. He says he is an artist who enjoys sharing his skill while raising money for worthwhile community projects.

To participate in a paint night one does not need to have achieved any skill level.

“I teach the group how to create a painting from scratch,” he said, adding that when completed, every painting is good enough to hang on a wall with pride.

“We expect that a good number of the people who attended the paint night event in Kamsack in January will be returning for another session,” he said. A good portion of the tickets for spots in these three events have already been sold.

“You can tell that the students are having a good time at the paint night because during it you hardly see anyone on a cell phone, except at the end of the session,” he said. A paint night is a time to get away, socialize and create art.

Each participant will end up with a work of art on a canvas measuring 20 inches by 16 inches.

Participants in Togo will create a landscape; at Kamsack, a vase of flowers, and at Norquay, a depiction of dandelion fluff.

The Kamsack and Norquay sessions are being held on the Mother’s Day weekend and organizers expect some people might want to use the session as an expression of the day by either taking them to the paint night or creating a painting for their mothers.

Wilson who makes both, landscapes and portraits, is a self-taught artist who says he has been “doing art” since he was a child.

Asked why he has not taken formal classes, he said that in the past when he had taken a class, it ended up with him assisting the instructor, rather than the other way around.

He does a wide variety of work including in pencil and oil and has had three shows at the Godfrey Dean Art Gallery in Yorkton. He will have five of his pieces in the Landscape and Memory exhibit at the Godfrey Dean from June 1 to 30.

He donated one of his pieces, a landscape of a river and mountains, to the Assiniboine Valley Health Centre in Kamsack and has an art page called dustinwilsonart on Facebook.

Persons wishing to purchase tickets to attend one of the three paint nights may do so by contacting Wilson or Amanda Holinaty at the Norquay SGI, Amanda Burback or Loretta Erhardt in Togo or the Family Pharmacy in Kamsack.

Sessions last from between three to four hours and many participants enjoy bringing snacks, Wilson said.