La Ronge's Caron Dubnick won an award this month for the fabric piece shown above. (Submitted photo/Hilary Johnstone)

By Derek Cornet

Award Winner

Dubnick wins award for winter landscape fabric artwork

Feb 27, 2019 | 2:07 PM

Caron Dubnick of La Ronge won the Kyla Art Group Landscape Award earlier this month at the annual Juried Winter Festival Art Show and Sale, held at the Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert.

Artists were allowed to make one submission into the show and Dubnick entered a fabric textile piece entitled “Just Another Winter Day” into the exhibit. In all, 104 pieces were submitted into the show and about 20 artists won an award of some kind. Dubnick had entered work into the competition in previous years, but this marks her first win.

“Of course, it’s really nice just to be acknowledged and to see people see something they like in your work,” she said. “It’s extra interesting for me this year because I wasn’t all that happy with the one I sent, but I sent it anyway. It proved to me it’s hard to be objective to your own work and sometimes other people see things you don’t.”

Dubnick, who is also the chairperson of the La Ronge Arts Council, began creating fabric artwork more than 10-years-ago. She noted the art style is time consuming, adding she gains satisfaction in a sense because it’s slow and tactile in a way painting isn’t. Painting is faster and more direct, Dubnick said, while sewing is slower and more contemplative.

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The winter scene depicted in her winning artwork was a vision Dubnick had been thinking about for close to 30 years. She had attempted to copy the vision by painting it, but said she just couldn’t get it right. Dubnick noted the scene reminds her of the time she spent living in Uranium City and the ptarmigan she would see in the willows.

“I dye the fabric and then I decide what it’s going to be used for after the fact,” she said about the creation of the work. “The process I use is quite random. I don’t know what I’m going to get. I don’t usually dye to get a particular colour or effect.”

Saskatoon Void Gallery owner Michael Peterson was the curator and judge of the show and he said Dubnick’s art stood out for the quality of the work. He mentioned it was a strong piece from the start and he enjoyed the landscape and use of materials. One particular quality that impressed him was how Dubnick was able to portray a winter scene so clearly, which is a skill artists are challenged with.

“I appreciate how she was doing this through her fabric work and how she was using white thread to give the textures of the snow,” Peterson said. “It was this aspect to the piece that was unique to the medium, but allowed there to be this feeling of snow without having to rely on shading or putting colours in that weren’t there.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno