Info
Art '86 welcomes all artists
Originally published by The
Brampton Guardian, Wednesday, April 16, 1986, written by Paul
Russell, Staff Writer
Those interested in expanding their knowledge or skills in the
visual arts field are invited to Info Art '86, a one-day show
that will include displays, workshops and demonstrations of the
latest visual arts techniques.
Taking place this Saturday at the former Central Public School
auditorium at 24 Alexander St., Info Art will be the kick-off
event for the newly formed organization. The group was set up
to promote and highlight the artistic abilities of Brampton residents,
says president Keith Moreau.
Starting at 10 a.m. and running until 3:30 p.m., Info Art will
allow budding artists to talk with suppliers of materials and
students from three Sheridan College art programs (illustration,
animation and crafts and design). As an added attraction, a 20-minute
animation film by Sheridan students will be shown throughout the
day.
Free workshops will be held in a studio on the second floor.
Barbara Betteridge will hold a drawing workshop in the morning,
followed by a watercolour demonstration by Barry Phillips in the
afternoon. Clay sculpting, ceramics and painting workshops will
also be held throughout the day.
Moreau says that while educated the artistically inclined public
is the main purpose, he also hopes to attract new members to the
group, which now has 16 members. Graphic artists, photographers
and other visual artists are welcome to join, he says, and can
do so by registering at the show and paying the $10 registration
fee. Space in the former Central Public School will be used by
the group on an on-going basis in the future, he adds.
Artist and Visual Arts member Maggie Bol says the group "is
not only for artists, but for anyone interested in art."
The group will be holding a juried art show for Brampton artists
from Dec. 4 to Jan 4. Moreau says that unlike other juried art
shows, which allow submissions on any topic, the theme will be
chairs. "We wanted to offer something different," he
explains, adding that all submissions should somehow involve chairs.
Admission to the show and workshops is free. For more information
about Info Art '86 or Visual Arts Brampton, call Keith Moreau
at (905) 459-2683.
Artists
show work
June of 1986
Local artists will be exhibiting their works this week at Shoppers World
as part of Brampton Arts Week celebrations.
Visual Arts Brampton president Keith Moreau says that 30 to 40
works by group members will be on display Wednesday to Saturday.
"We also have a slideshow of about 120 slides, showing the
works of 15 to 20 artists, which will be running continuously
throughout the exhibit," he says.
He adds that several of the group's artists will be in attendance
at the show and the some will also be sketching there.
"It's a chance for the public to meet our members, to ask
about their work, about art in general and about the group,"
Moreau says.
Exhibition pieces range from watercolours and oils to airbrushing,
screen prints and linoblock.
Starting Thursday, the group will also present screen printing
demonstrations to the public free of charge.
The visual arts exhibit will take place in a vacant store between
K-mart and Pascal Hardware.
Website editor's Notes: Wow. That's old. A "vacant store
between K-mart and Pascal Hardware."
Brampton artists
open own studio
By Liz Turcotte
Brampton Times Staff
September 1986
Pack up the paints, brushes, canvas and creativity, because Visual
Arts Brampton now has a studio just waiting to be used.
The group officially opened the studio Saturday when president
Keith Moreau and the group's oldest member Maggie Solmes, 85,
cut the ceremonial ribbon strung across the second floor room
of the refurbished Central Public School on Alexander Street.
From it's first meeting on a snowy February night, through an
art show a few months later, membership in the Visual Arts Brampton
group has steadily grown to include 75 members now.
Likewise, the members' support for a common studio also snowballed,
Moreau said in an interview, adding if that auspicious beginning
continues the group might want to expand into another room in
the future.
"We just moved in (last Tuesday) so a lot of members haven't
seen the room before," says Moreau, who is also a painter
and illustrator.
Visual Arts
September 1986
Photo by Jeff Bassett
Members of Visual Arts Brampton now have their very own studio.
They held an opening ceremony last Saturday, with an exhibition
of works by some of the group members, who now number 80. The
group's president Keith Moreau, vice-president Maggie Bol (left)
and secretary Kate Taylor look over some of the art on display.
The new studio is at 24 Alexander St. (2nd floor, studio G) one
block north of Church St., off Hwy. 10. Their next event is a
Juried Art Show at the Chinguasousy Library Art Gallery at the
Civic Centre, running Dec. 4 to Jan 14, based on the theme "Chairs".
Applications are available at the library, or the Art Mart, on
Main St., south of Church. Call 459-2683.
Visual
Arts' display sets up shop in library
By Robert Muller
Brampton Times Staff
Monday, March 9th, 1987
Members of the Visual Arts Brampton have found a new location
to display their work, in the auditorium of the Brampton Four
Corners library branch.
Visual Arts Brampton opened the exhibition on Sunday, composed
of work from the winners of their recent juried art show.
Almost all of the work, by the artists who participated in the
juried art show, is being displayed for the first time. The juried
show's theme was "chairs."
VAB president Keith Moreau negotiated with the library for permission
to display the work, in place of some portraits of the Fathers
of Confederation. Ironically, Moreau hung those very same portraits
years ago when he was a library employee.
The work will be on display only on Saturday and Sunday and when
the auditorium is open for other meetings and functions. These
limited showings are because the volunteer VAB can only provide
someone to keep an eye on the exhibition during the weekend.
Moreau said he hopes that the organization can keep displaying
work in the auditorium and he would to see some money made available
to keep the area staffed, so that the room can be opened for view
more often.
"We can't just open it up with no one there to keep an eye
out for trouble."
He said that the informal agreement means that more work of lesser-known
artists can be displayed, more frequently.
The formal gallery at the Chinguacousy branch of the library,
curated by Shirley Morriss, is booked up well in advance, he said.
Jack Reid
poster for Brampton Air Show
Summer 1996, VAB Expressions newsletter (now Creative
Urges)
Albert Seaman
The Brampton Flying Club celebrates its fiftieth anniversary
this year. A major item in the programme of events will be a first
class air show on July 6th. and 7th. at the clubs airfield
in Cheltenham. To help promote the event, Jack Reid has produced
a large painting for use as a poster. Twelve hundred copies have
been printed and will be used for display over a fairly wide area.
Signed copies of the poster will be available from the Pilots
Shop at $9.95 each. Jack will be on site at the airfield on one
of the days to sign copies at the same price.
The painting is generally in the style of landscape work that
we have come to expect from this fine artist. But with a difference.
In order to represent the fifty year span of the clubs history,
Jack has superimposed the original 1946 field over the present
grounds. A deHavilland "Tiger Moth" (the Clubs
original trainer, and still flying) occupies the centre foreground,
symbolic of the flying training programme that has always been
one of the clubs principle occupations.
The Brampton Flying Club is well known for its historic aviation
museum and its flight of replica World War I aircraft. This is
grist of the mill of any dedicated aviation artist and well worth
a visit.
Information about the Brampton Flying Club, the July air show
and availability of the posters may be had by 'phoning the club
at - (905) 838-1400 or (416) 798-7928.
EDITORs NOTE: Note that these phone numbers may be out-of-date,
as the article was from over a decade ago. Best to check, before
you dial.
VAB AGM
approves changes to the board
Size reduced from 12 to 10 members
Summer 1996, VAB Expressions newsletter (now Creative Urges)
The Annual General Meeting of Visual Arts Brampton was held in
the club premises on April 16th, 1996. The meeting was opened
by club president Keith Moreau with a "state-of-the-union"
address.
The treasurer's report was presented by Muriel Gray, who informed
the members that the club is financially stable. Revenue was balanced
by expenditures in 1995 and, with one exception, the situation
is expected to continue for the current year. The exception is
the rent for premises, which will increase by $75 per month. Rent
will be the largest single cost item for the Club in 1996, amounting
to $7,254 for the year.
As always, a principle source of income is BINGO! The importance
of the efforts of those members who work the games cannot be over
emphasized. Their tireless gifts of time for the support of the
Club demand thanks from everyone.
Several fund-raising programmes are being planned for this year.
Details will be announced as they become available.
It was put to the members that it would be more practical for
the number of directors to be reduced from 12 to 10. The motion
was approved and a new Board elected. Six current directors were
returned for the year and four new elected.
Returned:
- Keith Moreau - President
- Peter Scott - Vice President
- Muriel Gray - Treasurer
- Margret Cummins
- Mary Taylor
- Eileen Sweeney
Newly elected:
- Gerri Deakin
- Janice Balesic
- Margaret Pardy
- Eva Mustafa
Details of some upcoming events, workshops and other items of
general interest were given at the meeting. These are reported
as a completely as possible elsewhere in this newsletter.
VAB
website editor's note: Since then, the Board of Directors
size has been minimized further, bingos have been replace with
the youth classes as a primary source of funding, and the rent
has gone up with inflation, as has anything else.
Cutruzolla
nominated for Canadian Entrepreneur
1999
Honourary VAB member John Cutruzolla was nominated this year
for the 1999 Canadian Entrepreneur of The Year Award. This competition,
open nationally to self-made business people was to acknowledge
Inzola Construction, which John founded in the 70s. He was awarded
the Brampton Business Person of the Year Award back in 1993. This
construction company has since expanded to a branch office in
Calgary; they have constructed or expanded the Peel Heritage Complex,
the Belvedere Complex, Peel Memorial Hospital, the Market Square
Business Centre, as well as parking garages.
John is a strong advocate of the arts in Brampton, supporting
the Art Gallery of Peel, as well as quite a few worth visual,
performing and musical art associations. For these causes that
he has advocated, he was honoured with the federal-level Les Carbot
Award for most art and culture contributions to a community, and
the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Confederation
of Canada.
3rd Annual
Children's Aid Studios of Distinction Show and Sale
From the VAB Expressions (now Creative Urges) newsletter
Artists
Bridget Aube-Doughty (right), Olga Rudge (below), Keith Moreau,
Scott Taylor, Elizabeth Patrick, Chandra de Silva, Maria Carosi
and Steven Wilson were all on display at the third annum of the
event.
This year, Visual Arts Brampton decided to create its successful
line of thirty-one different art cards, showing most of the artwork
on display during the exhibit. Marian Simpson and Marguerite Finlayson
were also on the art cards, although they didn't display in the
show.
Overall, there wasn't much sales, as usual with this tour, but
there was an increased awareness of this group and the artists
on exhibit.

Congratulations!
(Great Grandma's Rocking Chair)
Autumn 2001 issue, VAB Expressions (now Creative Urges)
Long time member Carol Biberstein has a book being published.
After months of work her efforts are paying off with the publisher's
acceptance of this beautifully illustrated and pleasant story
about a Grandmother's rocking chair.
Visual Arts Brampton board members unanimously agreed to nominate
Carol for the City of Brampton's Arts Acclaim Award which goes
to artists who achieve on a provincial, national or international
level. The annual awards ceremony will be held in the Lester B.
Pearson Theatre early in 2002.
She has illustrated for other books and publications in the past
but this is extra special because it is entirely hers.
Well done Carol!
Artists
make the grade
A photograph from the Brampton Guardian, by Bryan Johnston,
published Friday, November 23, 2001

John Ramlall and Matthew Daley (back row, left
to right), both took home silver awards while Elizabeth Patrick
and Adrianne Houston (front, left to right), along with
Chandra de Silva (not shown) took home the gold at this
year's Visual Arts Brampton juried show. The exhibit continues
at Art Way, located on the lower level of the Bramalea City Centre,
until Friday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m
VAB's
15 Year Anniversary
Just the start of a legacy.
THOUGHTS FROM THE PRESIDENT
by Keith Moreau
From Visual Arts Bramptons formation in April of 86,
we have changed and evolved. In our first five years, at our old
location, we had a single room with storage space. For almost
a decade now weve had our beautiful multi-faceted facility
which includes complete with drawing and painting area, printmaking
areas, and a computer graphics and animation space.
With the start up of a youth division in 1998, the group evolved
to serve even more of our community. As of April (our anniversary
month), we will further expand our youth division by adding an
overflow class. This makes heavy use of our facilities for most
Saturdays of the year.
In order to accommodate the computer graphics and animation area,
we needed to encroach on the printmaking space. One of our screen
printing tables was dismantled and converted into our computer
stations. We would like to see more use of our printmaking facilities,
and more active use of our studio in general. We commend two of
our board, Gerri and Marg for providing the twice monthly open
studio time.
A timely decision to acquire storage space has provided a more
open drawing and painting area, by allowing storage of our horses
during non-peak periods. The screen printing screen storage rack
was also moved into the storage space.
As you can see from the list at to the right, Tuesdays, Fridays
and Saturdays are well used. But the rest of the time, our studio
usually sits empty. So the board would like input as to what workshops
and/or sessions you would like. Take note that we are offering
adults a chance to explore the creativity of art through computers.
This 6-week workshop is listed to the right.
In our formative years, we staged events like Infoart, Gold Mine
'89 (a silent art auction at the Art Gallery of Peel), and our
annual juried art exhibit. A silent art auction at the gallery
would now require a rental fee, and our juried show died with
the loss of our community gallery. But region, through the Art
Gallery of Peel, now provides a small community exhibit space.
In April of 1998, Visual Arts Brampton launched City Centre Exhibit
Space in Bramalea City Centre, which by the year end, moved to
a new, current location, and is now known as Artway. These community
exhibits garner a much larger audience than the space we lost
and creates an awareness of our group, and all that we offer.
Carol on Craftscapes
A VAB member on the Life Network.
Craftscapes, a Life Network program hosted by Sue Warden will
feature Visual Arts Brampton member Carol Biberstein on October
25th. Check your local listings for more details.
Note, this article is from 2002. However, it is likely the
episode is still in syndication.
Safety Mural revealed
 |
| A detail of Keith Moreau’s mural, in pen & ink stage,
before it was coloured. |
Article created March 12th, 2002; revised Saturday, May 25th,
2002
A detail of Keith Moreaus mural, in pen & ink stage,
before it was coloured.
On March 11th and 12th, VAB youth gold medal winners Jennifer
Cuthbert, Amber Menezes, Ilichna Morasky and Nicholas Moreau were
chosen to colour one of two safety mural designs for Bramalea
City Centre (BCC).
The designs, painted with pen & ink by VABs Keith Moreau,
were coloured by these four Coca-Cola design winners during the
March Break. The dont do murals, are shown outside Sears
on the second floor and on the second floor near Canada Trust.
The coloured mural is to be unveiled May 16th, between the Brampton
Transit terminal and the lower level mall entrance. This event
was front page news on The Brampton Guardian on Friday, March
16th, 2002 in their Weekend edition.
Folk festival partnership, Update
Drawing practice sessions led to thoroughly unexpected sales
for our artists, by editor Nicholas Moreau.
Saturday, May 24th, 2003, VAB Expressions (now Creative Urges)
As you may have read in a previous column, Visual Arts Brampton
teamed up with the Brampton Folk Club in March. The still life,
Crea8tif, open studio and youth sessions all had the opportunity
to draw and paint from wind and string folk music instruments.
Also, artists had the opportunity later on to draw from the musicians
themselves, in the evening Crea8tif sessions. The musicians went
so far as to entertain us playing some of their song while they
posed.
Both of these sessions were ment solely to let our area artists
challenge themselves on new subject matter; this challenge was
well appreciated by both parties.
After some of the portraits were displayed at Artway Exhibit
Space, in Bramalea City Centre, some of the musicians fell in
love with the pictures, purchasing them. Leo Salvador and Mary
Noble both made a sale a piece to different musicians, and Eileen
Sweeney sold two of her portraits. -NM
Brampton Arts Council Art Student Award at Helen
Wilson Public School
Helen Wilson alumni presents award
July, 2003, VAB Expressions (now Creative Urges)
On behalf of Visual Arts Brampton and the Brampton Arts Council,
member Nicholas Moreau presented the Brampton Arts Council Art
Student Award for Helen Wilson Public School to Jacob Pranger.
Nick is a Helen Wilson alumni himself (graduating class of 1998),
and was excited to have the opportunity to present the plaque
to this member of the graduating class. However, he was slightly
thrown by the emcees introduction, which claimed there was
two winners of the award this year, contrary to the truth.
Most years, club president Keith Moreau has handed out the award.
The Arts Council is an umbrella group to Visual Arts Brampton.
Juried Show by Greenbriar
Encouraging the community in artistic endeavours
July, 2003, VAB Expressions (now Creative Urges)
Run by students of Greenbriar for many years now, the schools
juried exhibition, was shown in the Art Gallery of Peel again.
The Visual Arts Brampton Board of Directors authorized the groups
donation of $25, just as in previous years.
This annual show lets the Grade 6-8 classes organize, hang, juror,
promote, and otherwise completely run their own exhibition. This
years event was again held with two other school participating.
The Animation Exploration Club News, 1st half
of 2003
AWN, Emslie among highlights
Monday, August 11th, 2003, VAB Expressions (now Creative Urges)
Animation World Network, quite honestly the webs best resource
for animation news and information, now lists the Animex Club.
The world comprehensive Animation School Database now lists information
on our group, and links to our main page.
Disney picture book and promotional material illustrator Peter
Emslie was invited to give a talk to students on character design.
His informative and entertaining talk on March 31st was very much
appreciated.
Moving On to Higher Education
On to Humber and U of T
Monday, August 11th, 2003
Each year, we have the pleasure of announcing students going
off to higher education. This year is no different.
Next year, Jason Rocha will be attending Humber College and Stephanie
Czolij will attend the University of Toronto.
Peter Emslie guest teaches for VAB
Illustrator comes to the youth classes
Monday, August 11th, 2003, VAB Expressions (now Creative Urges)
Disney story book illustrator Peter Emslie taught each of the
three youth classes character design, over a span of four weeks
over a five week period.
In these classes, students first followed along with step-by-step
instructions to create famous Disney characters, then learned
how to make more effective emotions the following week, creating
animal characters the next, and ending off with caricatures.
As a special treat to the students, they got to win Peters
drawings, through a raffle drawing at the end of each weeks
class. While they were working on mini-assignments, Peter even
created extra sketches as prizes.
If youre into the studio, you may see some of the portraits
he drew in with the students in their half-hour opening portrait
exercise.
Thanks Peter!
Sesqui Section: Albert Seaman
Sesquicentennial artwork website
Monday, August 11th, 2003, VAB Expressions (now Creative Urges)
Albert Seamans new website is certainly worth a gander,
just to see all of Alberts great artwork online. In addition
to the normal site, he has added a quite interesting Sesqui section
devoted to features of Brampton's development over the past
150 years.
http://www.albertseaman.com/
2004
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