Federation of Canadian Artists Signature Status

This week I learned the results of the 2020 Signature Status application that I did at the end of February with the Federation of Canadian Artists.  I am honoured and thrilled to have earned my Senior status (SFCA).  :)   The young woman who called to tell me that was very thrilled for me  and she told me that I accomplished something unusual…I bypassed the first level and went directly to the highest level for their organization.  She said that doesn’t happen very often.  

The other notable thing is that I am the very first artist from the Northwest Territories to receive Senior Signature Status with the Federation of Canadian Artists!!!  How cool is that!  Totally.  

I started this process 4 years ago.  There is a very developed process to be able to earn the Signature Status with this Canadian arts organization , which was founded in 1941 by a group of professional Canadian Artists including: Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, and A.Y. Jackson from the Group of Seven.  :) 

I have worked hard to create works that would be accepted into whatever the eclectic theme of the show was.  The first painting that got accepted was for the  2016 from Life show was 'Castle Dragon'.  I was over the moon to be accepted.  I set up this painting which I painted directly from life when we were living in a very small apartment and I had an exceedingly small room to paint in.  Kinetic sand was a revelation!  :) 

Over the next number of years I had more paintings rejected than accepted.  :) But I finally made the 7 juried Qualifying Exhibitions.  Below are the successful juried paintings.  Can you see my skill progression? 

For the Signature Status application I had to enter 10 images to be screened in.  I chose to focus in on my bird paintings in acrylic.  My flowers are strong but watercolour paintings require framing  and are so much harder to ship.   Of the 10 paintings, they required that  3 paintings be created in a small series to be physically sent to FCA.  

​I chose to do one of my favourite birds - Yellow Warblers.  I spend a lot of time in the spring and summer doing bird photography.  I realized to create cohesive series that I needed images that had the same kind of light.  Thankfully I found these three images to work from that I captured on the same day but different parts of Niven Lake here in Yellowknife. 

The next decision seemed to be what size.  Do I do them all the same? Or do I do them different sizes?  How can I unify the paintings beyond the subject matter?  

I chose to have all the paintings be 16 inches tall.  Each cradled board would be the same height.  I think that this was another interesting element to the paintings.  I lined up the boards right beside each other and did the background at the same time with it lighter at the top to slightly darker at the bottom.  I think this also connected each piece to the other.  

I found that working in series requires a very different thought process and was an interesting challenge.  :)  I started these paintings near the end of January and finished the last one just hours before the deadline at the end of February.  It was nip and tuck whether I would make it.  Thankfully Vancouver is an hour behind us.  That was helpful.  I had everything uploaded and paid for just 1.5 hours before the deadline.  :) 

Warbler Building Nest 1, Acrylic, 16x12 in

​Warbler Building Nest 2, Acrylic, 16x20 in

​Warbler Building Nest 3, Acrylic, 16x16 in

A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to the 33 other artists who also were successful earning their Signature Status!  Check out the on-line show aptly named SUCCESS  here!