BELLEVILLE, Ont. (08/02/13) – Dennis Stembridge reflects on his career inside his Belleville studio.

A picture may be worth 1000 words, but what are 1000 pictures worth to an aging painter?

“My son wouldn’t come from Whistler to deal with any of them, my daughter would just say give them all to Salvation Army or something. Give it to anybody that wants it.”

Dennis Stembridge has a problem. After painting since the early 70’s, he has accumulated a multitude of paintings in all shapes and sizes, from small prints to murals.

He began painting in his spare time near the end of his 48-year career in Toronto as an architect. He paints now on a covered porch in his backyard, and in a spare room in his small house in Belleville.

Stembridge is a member of the Quinte Arts Council, and finds himself inspired by other artists in the community. He has a drawer full of images, paintings, and pictures that he has set aside to paint at a later date.

The spare room is covered from floor to ceiling in paintings. Realistic and impressionistic scenes, people, and buildings cover the small 8×10 foot room. There are at least four different carpets, rugs, and mats on the floor covering old paint thinner stains.

Stembridge speaks excitedly about his style and his history, pausing briefly to talk about each of his paintings in the room.

He finds himself painting mainly with oil and acrylics but has done pencil, pen and ink, model trains, and has spent 10 years doing drafting table work.

He sells his paintings at anywhere from $100 to $600. He took out a thick logbook dating every painting he has done since 2003, over 150 of them. Flipping through the musty, laminated pages you could see just how much work he has done, and only in the past 10 years.

But he says that he wasn’t making a lot of money.

“If I sell a painting for $100, its not much, it works out to $10 an hour. It’s not much because you pay for the paint, the varnish, and the canvas,” said Stembridge. “It’s a case of ‘do I want to have 300 of these things hanging on the wall or do I want to sell them and get something out of it.’“

He does a lot of commissioned pieces for family, friends and neighbours. He prefers painting for himself, though.

“I found out that I don’t really like painting what people want me to do, cause its more like a job then,” said Stembridge. “You have to do it like this, you have to do it right, whether they’ll like this or whether they’ll like that, this is too dark, and can you fix this. You know what, I’ll paint what I like and if they like it they buy it. If they don’t then I don’t have any pressure, I hate stress and pressure.”

But Stembridge says he finds it hard to balance painting as a job and painting as a hobby.

“I look at other work I keep around and I think ‘Can I paint that? Would I paint that? Would anyone buy it? If I spend 40, 50 hours on it will anyone buy it? What’s the point of doing it if it’s just going to hang on my wall.”

Stembridge knows he’s going to have to get rid of the paintings somehow, but who will take them?

“I’m getting at the age now that my kids don’t want any of my stuff. In five or six years we gotta’ move out of here, go into a retirement home or who knows what,” said Stembridge. “What’s going to happen to all these things? My kids aren’t going to do anything with them; they’re just going to give them away.”

Stembridge was visibly frustrated with his situation. He doesn’t say he’s a great painter, but he still doesn’t understand why people won’t buy them.

“A lot of people say they like it, but they don’t say they’ll pay for it,” said Stembridge. “But I spent a lot of time to do it. Someone might think it’s worth $100. Other people say its nice but they aren’t interested.”

He reached down and picked up an old sketch of a forest scene from 1958 he did as a teenager. After looking at it for a few minutes he began talking about how he feels when he paints.

“I find it exciting, invigorating, in a way. You sit down at a canvas and you got this thing dancing around in your mind,” said Stembridge. “I saw Beyoncé singing at the halftime concert (Super Bowl) and all I thought was ‘oh I gotta’ paint that!’ You just can’t wait to get it down.”

Stembridge is still painting though. He has a nearly finished painting sitting on his easel in the studio that he plans on finishing by the end of the week.

“I’ve spent about eight hours on this so far, I like it but, hopefully someone will buy it.”

[Show as slideshow]

Check out his work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisstembridge

(10/12/12) BELLEVILLE Screenshot of Milé Murtanovski painting one of 100 portraits for his “Burning the midnight oil” project over a live internet stream. Courtesy of live internet feed.

Milé Murtanovski is depriving himself of sleep to complete an exhausting artistic feat.

The Picton artist calls it his ‘Burning the midnight oil’ project, which challenges him to paint 100 portraits in 100 hours or less.

“I like challenges, and I wanted to do something that stands out, something that gets some attention for my artwork as well as my wife’s lantern festival,” he said, in a phone interview Monday.

Upon finishing his 100th portrait, the finished collection will be on sale for $100 each, with half of the proceeds going to the inaugural ‘Firelight Lantern Festival’, a not-for-profit community-art event that Prince Edward County will be hosting next spring.

“It’s going to be a community oriented event, where everybody is going to be able to make their own lanterns using inexpensive materials,” he said.

Murtanovski, who has been painting since 1988, says he paints to capture beauty.

“Life inspires me, it sounds flakey but it’s true, I get my inspiration from the things around me.”

To make this project possible, Murtanovski reached out to 33 of his Facebook friends and asked them if he could paint their portraits. The one condition he required is that these friends reach out to 33 of their friends, and those friends do the same, supplying Murtanovski with enough people to paint portraits of.

The final portrait will be of the artist himself.

Murtanovski describes the process as being “Very productive, very tiring,” and says there have only been a few minor mishaps thus far.

“It’s like a marathon, I’m running it to finish, I won’t stop once it’s 9 o’clock,”

Fans of Murtanovski have had the chance to watch the artist hard at work through an online stream.

“The live stream actually is turning out to be really entertaining for people, they’re tuning in, and commenting and saying they’re addicted, it’s an interesting side effect,” he said.

Because this is a first time project, Murtanovski is unsure if he’ll make it an annual project.
“If I do it again, it will take a different form somehow,”

The artwork has already started to sell, it’s being uploaded to www.burning100.blogspot.ca where people can pick out the portraits they wish to purchase.

Kelly Schuilenberg, an Art and Design Foundations student, poses in front of her paddles. The paddles are being auctioned off at their art exhibition, Different Strokes. This is the first year the students have decided to use their art show as a fundraiser for their own program.

By Shelby Wye

This week, Loyalist College’s Art and Design Foundation students have taken part in curating their first art show, titled ‘Different Strokes’.

The show features talent from the Quinte Arts Council and the students themselves. The gallery is held in the Link Lounge at Loyalist College, and runs until December 11 at noon. More than 100 people came to the opening night.

The students, for the first time, have decided to use their first art show as a fundraiser for their program. The program purchased canoe paddles, which each student has personally decorated in a show of their various artistic personas. They are available for a silent auction, starting at $50. Already, they have raised $700 and still have more paddles to sell.

The students worked in teams: a documentation team, an installation team, a curating team and a design team. “It was hard to work together as a group at first, we artists are used to working solo, but I think it came together great,” said Kelly Schuilenberg, one of the Art and Design Foundation students.
Schuilenberg is one of the students who was part of the ‘documentation’ team. Camera-in-hand, she was one of the several students who were in charge of recording the process from beginning to end.

“Most of the documentation is going towards promoting the program, but it’s also for the media here, giving them the information to put artwork out there, instead of just around the school,” said Schuilenberg.

The artists that graduate from this program tend to branch out in multiple ways, according to the head of the program, Robert Kranendonk. Kranendonk says that many students return to Loyalist College after graduating from Art and Design foundations, so they can specialize in their interests.

“It packages four years of information into one year. The program is a good introduction into a lot of different fields in art and design,” said Daniel McKeown, a student currently part of the art and design program.  Their one year program covers a broad knowledge, from fine arts including painting and drawing to applied arts, which are architectural design, sculptures and graphic design.

“And that’s just in the first semester,” said McKeown.

“It gives students who don’t know what they want to do to get a taste of everything, and gives those who do know what they want to do a varied portfolio,” said Kranendonk.

Next semester, on April 19th, the students will host their final exhibition. This will included both a juried and non-competitive portion, and will include artwork from artists across the county.

“Next year, our exhibitions are solely student run,” said Schuilenberg, “It’s rough because you’ve got to step out of your comfort zone, but that’s part of the business of being an artist.”

BELLEVILLE, Ont. (28/09/12)Dennis Stembridge paints as Art Walk participants walk past in search for the next gallery. Photo by Shelby Wye.

By Shelby Wye

Belleville’s art community shares a common dream — to get the city of Belleville to be aware of their presence.

Belleville’s annual Art Walk was held last Friday, bringing out hundreds of local artists’ pieces for the public to see. The Art Walk consisted of a dozen locations in the downtown, each boasting the talents of Belleville’s local artists.

Stephanie Trattner is one of the coordinators of the event. She is also part of the Belleville Downtown Improvement Association (BDIA), and a photographer.

“I just want people to come down and see that art is accessible in our community, see that there is a lot of talent in here and to gain a bit of appreciation for art,” Stephanie said.

Judy Kirkpatrick, a member of the Belleville Art Association, was glad that the Art Walk gave Belleville residents a chance to see what the 100-plus members of the association do. She also hopes that it will inspire other people to join.

“We’d like members,” Kirkpatrick said, “we’re a charity organization and we give back to the town through our Christmas programs and elementary school workshops. We’re strictly volunteer so money is always tight since we have to run the gallery. We have sponsors but we need members.”

The Belleville Art Association has been part of the community for 55 years, and is a member of the Quinte Arts Council along with the other galleries in town.

Shop owners said they were pleased by the turnout.

Fusions co-owner Kathy Huiskamp showcased a few artists in her gift and décor shop. “Definitely more traffic,” she said.

Huiskamp’s shop features artists’ products year-round, and hoped the Art Walk will allow people to really discover what they have to offer.

John Kiser was one of the Belleville pedestrians who took part in the event. Kiser heard about the Art Walk through the local paper, and the posters scattered around town.

“I’m enjoying seeing the variety, the art and what the artists have done,” he said.

Terri Horricks, another coordinator for the Art Walk, has her gallery office on Front Street.

“Downtown Belleville as a lot to offer in terms of culture and I hope they will know that there is permanent art here that they can enjoy all the time,” said Horricks.

The event was sponsored by the Belleville Downtown Improvement Association, which aims to promote all that the downtown shops, galleries and events that happen. Their goal is to involve more people with the downtown.

This is the sixth annual Art Walk, but this is the first year that it has been held in coordination with Canada’s Culture Days. The Culture Days movement tries to raise national awareness of every community’s arts and cultural life. It is volunteer-organized and has been in effect since 2009.

Trattner said next year she wants to involve more multimedia artists, more music and more artists.

The big band sound of the thirties and forties will be alive and well in Trenton this weekend with the arrival of the Big Band Festival.

The bands contain 16 to18 musicians with singers, trombones, trumpets, saxophones, and a rhythm section.

The festival features big bands such as the Brian Barlow Big Band, Swing Shift! and The Commodores’.

The Commodores’ has been in operation in the Quinte area since 1928, said band member Andy. And he is certain that big bands still have an audience.

“So big bands aren’t particularly popular theses days, certainly not like they were in the 40s,” said Sparling. “Back then you had thousands of these bands travelling across the country playing one-nighters or long engagements.”

“So now it’s just down to very few, it’s kind of a niche thing,” he said. “You still have people who are very passionate about and will come and hear these bands play when they can.”

Not only are the fans passionate, said Sparling, but the people who play for them are too.

“Those of us that are involved are extremely passionate about the music, we live it and breathe it,” Sparling said. “Its really a labour of love to put something together that will be enjoyed by the fans of the music of whom there are still a few around.”

Sparling said the Commodores’ are in the festival to show their stuff and, “play for people who really care about the music and to keep ourselves active and moving forward.”

Brian Barlow and Sparling come up with the idea a few years ago and formed a committee. They approached the mayor and he loved the idea.

Barlow said that the festival is less about nostalgia, and more about showing that young people are getting caught up in this too.

“I think we’re going to have a very wide age group coming to this,” Barlow said. “We have a group of swing dancers coming to this, and I don’t think any of them are over 30. I think there’s a wide appeal to this. I’d hate to have people think we’re only doing this to recreate the past, there’s more to it than that.”

Jim John, of the band Swing Shift!, said he also feels big band music is reaching out to a younger audience.

“Thanks to artists like Michael Buble and others that have come and gone in the past, Big Band music is being reintroduced to new generations,” said John. “And so we find that a lot of younger people do come out to listen to our music, not just the older crowd.”

John founded Swing Shift! in August of 1976. The band is coming up on their 17^th anniversary next month.

Even though he is the last original member, John said most of the band has been around for at least 10 years and they, “have a lot of fun and enjoy coming out,”

He said he feels that talk about big band music going away just isn’t true.

“People over the years have spoken a lot about how this music has gone away, but that isn’t really true,” said John. “The music has always been around and had a strong presence; the audience has come and gone to certain degrees, over the years.

“We want to keep the momentum going, keep the music alive,” said John. “I enjoy performing, and I hope the audience enjoys our music. That’s really what it’s all about.”

If the festival is successful this weekend then the sound will stay alive for next year too, said special events coordinator of Quinte West, Colleen Vickers.

“We’re absolutely thrilled this is a new event, we’re hoping that it’s a huge success so we can carry on with it again next year and we have attracted an exceptional calibre of musicians,” said Vickers. “Making this an annual event is what were hoping for, we hope that it will grow and become more and more successful.”

Vickers said she thinks that events like this are good for community pride.

“Anytime that we can draw people into the area and create tourism dollars is a good thing,” said Vickers. “I think that events like this are really good because they bring the community out and it gets them together and allows for a bit of pride in the area.”

Admission for the festival is $15 in advance and $20 at the gate.  Tickets are available at the Quinte West City Hall, Season’s Dufferin Centre, Riverside Music and Pinnacle Music in Trenton.

BELLEVILLE, Ont. (04/04/2012) - Jack Evans was presented with the 2011 Quinte Arts Council Arts Recognition Award For his journalistic and artistic contributions to the Quinte arts community. Photo by Patrick Callbeck.

The Quinte Arts Council wants to award citizens for supporting the arts.

The council is seeking nominations for its annual Arts Recognition award. Every year the award is given to several people who have demonstrated consistent and outstanding support for the arts in Quinte. Past recipients have included musicians, visual artists, directors, writers, volunteers, and corporate sponsors.

Jack Evans, one of last year’s recipients, said the award is a great way to honour those who have contributed to the community.

“It’s like any other award. It’s a tangible recognition of your contribution,” said Evans. “It’s a real honour to have something like that.”

Evans received the award in recognition of his abilities as a singer, actor and musician, but also for the attention and respect he gave the arts community during his lengthy career as a journalist.

“I have been covering the arts, doing reviews of plays and shows and concerts, for years. If someone had a show coming up, even if nobody would pay me to write it I’d put it in the paper anyway,” said Evans.

Since its inception in 1993, the council has given the award to over 70 different people and organizations.  The council and various other members of the arts community determine the recipients.

“There have been a lot of great and wonderful people to receive this award since they started the program,” said Evans. “It’s a vote of confidence by your peers and other people that share the same interests and have similar experiences, that is such a meaningful thing.”

Nominations for the awards are open until May 14. Nomination forms can be picked up from the Quinte Arts Council office at 36 Bridge St. E, in Belleville. Awards will be presented at a banquet in June.

For more information about the Quinte Arts Council and the Arts Recognition Award visit the QAC website at http://www.quinteartscouncil.org/.

Jamie Spurvey had heard his calling.

After placing first place at the ninth annual Havelock Country Idol last year Spurvey has made a name for himself in Canada. Aside from performing at music festivals, Spurvey also frequently does shows at local pubs in Eastern Ontario, grinding his way toward his dream.

Spurvey’s mother, Dana Spurvey, has pictures of him holding a guitar when he was seven years old. It was when he turned 10 years old that his parents decided to get him music lessons. His uncle, Dave Spurvey, who lived with him at his home, was an accomplished accordion player, and heavily inspired his nephew during his upbringing.

“He is one of the best accordion players in Canada.”

Spurvey started out playing the accordion but eventually would trade it for the country twang sound made famous by country stars such as Alan Jackson, Randy Travis and other “great musicians.”

Spurvey was raised in a military family, drifting between homes across Canada.

Born in St. John’s Newfoundland, Spurvey followed in the footsteps of his father. He joined the Canadian Forces after graduating from high school.  After spending two years with the Forces, Spurvey received an honorable discharge to pursue a music career.

“Everyone told me when I was growing up that I was going to do something musical. I always made money from music but I didn’t see the big picture.”

Things changed when a personal friend and mentor, country musician John Landry, began to help Spurvey with his songwriting.

Landry said to me, “I believe you can do this,” and that is when the musical dream dawned on him.

“This is coming from someone who’s done it, and I’m going to give it a shot.”

Spurvey’s destiny continued branching out last year after coming into contact with his current manager, Greg Verner.

“Jamie is a dynamic voice. But beyond his singing and songwriting he is an amazing person,” Verner says. He describes their professional relationship as a friendship that has grown greatly.

“Jamie is focused and committed and together we remain determined to reach for the stars.”

Spurvey is now working on putting out a debut album through Iguana Studios, putting the final touches on the mixing and mastering of the material. Spurvey is hoping for a release of his album later this year.

Even though the draw of success in the big city is tempting, Spurvey has no plans on leaving his roots. When it comes to living “definitely has to be in the country.”

PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, Ont. (05/03/12)-Mia Lane shows off her paintings. Photo by Sarah Schofield

Mia Lane, an acclaimed painter from the Quinte area, works in her studio and home in Prince Edward County on Monday, March 5, 2012. She is known for her gallery shows and collection of paintings of dogs used for Canada Post stamps. Photo by Sarah Schofield

BELLEVILLE, Ont. (10/02/12) - Cast members from Albert College hold up signs during the play, The Laramie Project, held Friday and Saturday evenings. The play covers the murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998 and talks about heavy topics such as religion, homosexuality and hate crimes. Photo by Amielle Christopherson

Students from Albert College received a standing ovation for their performance of The Laramie Project on Saturday evening.

The play was written by the Tony Award-winning playwright Moisés Kaufman and is based on more than 200 interviews that he and the members of Tectonic Theatre Company conducted. It has gone on to become one the most performed plays in North America.

Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who died in 1998 because of wounds he suffered when he was attacked because he was gay.

The cast of 16 students acted in more than 60 parts and performed for their fellow students Thursday, and for the public on Friday and Saturday.

In Albert College, where the audience was concentrated in the front rows reserved for family of the cast members, the only sound was that of the lines being said and the humming as the spotlights switched. Other than the rare moments of humour, the space was quiet for the duration of the three-hour, three-act play.

“We learned a lot about how totally opposed people were to that kind of thing,” said student and cast member Emily Hoffman, “How totally, insanely and obsessively [against] people could be to what was going on. And we didn’t realize that that was something that happened.”

Cast members also noted that it’s not a problem that’s been fixed in the last 14 years.

“Even the fact that it had happened so many years ago, it’s something that’s still happening today,” said student Julie Burns.

“People are protesting gay soldiers at their funerals. So it’s just kind of bringing all that together, that it’s still happening today,” Burns said.

Teacher and director Leslie Austin-Profit was happy with how supportive and positive the school community was toward the students putting on the play.

“In the media lately, there’s been a lot of sad news about young people, cyber-bullying and bullying often related to homophobia and kids taking their own lives, and I just thought that it was relevant to what is happening today,” she said.

As she and her students discussed the play and some of the things that had come out of the violent incident, they covered the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2009 and how it was a reflection of positive change.

While they did cut some of the harsh language out of the script, they did keep the derogatory language against gays.

“We felt we had to keep because there is the lesson that, as the priest says, ‘They’re the seeds of violence,’” Austin-Profit said. “And it’s been very supportive. Not a single person in three nights’ performances has said anything other than it was positive.”