It’s holiday market season in Surrey, where one of the biggest and most artful returns to Surrey Arts Centre the weekend of Nov. 25-26.

Hosted by Surrey Art Gallery Association (SAGA), the annual Heart to Home Holiday Market features pieces by more than 30 artists based in Surrey and the region.

Shoppers will find ceramics, jams, cookies, skincare products, apparel, jewelry, paintings, prints, photography, art cards, stickers, artisan chocolates and more.

Admission is free at the market, noon to 4 p.m. daily in the Studio Theatre at the Bear Creek Park facility.

New to the event is Sapphorica Creations, makers of handcrafted, vintage art cards.

“Surrey is the heart of our home,” co-owner Kellee Roque said. “Most of our inspiration comes from historical sites, museums, parks and diversity of culture within our city. This year marks our first year as a market vendor, and we’re excited to continue to build relationships with local artists and art supporters.”

Lisa Rae Simons will perform music at the market Saturday (Nov. 25), followed by Ranj Singh on Sunday. Simons plays a mix of classic rock, blues and R&B, while Singh blends Eastern rhythms and melodies with Western folk-rock.

SAGA members receive 15 per cent off purchases, and shoppers can sign up for membership on-site or online. Those who’d rather shop at home can browse SAGA’s website (sagabc.com). From Nov. 25 to Dec. 18, use the code H2H@H at checkout for 15 per cent off. For more details email sagagiftshop@gmail.com or call 604-501-5187 (Anna Hall manages the gift shop).

SAGA is a non-profit society that offers its members “the opportunity to participate in and respond to contemporary art and be part of a community that actively supports Surrey Art Gallery.”

Elsewhere, a holiday market is part of Surrey Tree Lighting Festival, Nov. 25-26 at Surrey Civic Plaza. Posted on surreytreelighting.ca/holiday-market is the list of vendors including artist Brad Henry, Angkor Harvest, Amanda Ruth Beads, Candle Corner, Gigil Clothing, Sullivan Heights Sewing and Crocheting Club, Sweetgrass Soap and many more.

In Cloverdale, the sixth annual Stalew Christmas Craft Market returns to the Museum of Surrey on Saturday, Dec. 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The single-day event features a wide variety of Indigenous makers and artists who hand-crafted jewelry, natural soaps, lotions, art, gourmet treats and more. Admission is free.

Also in Surrey, look for themed arts and crafts at Potters’ huge Christmas Store, 19158 48 Ave. The store has thousands of ornaments, designer Christmas trees and other collectables, along with stocking stuffers, food items, games, toys and all types of decorations. This year’s displays include Pretty in Pink, Dark Room, Gourmet Food, Candyland, Petland, Thru the Grapevine, Coca-Cola, Men-Zone, Great Britain and MouseTown.

A painting given by Lord Beaverbrook to Fredericton’s Beaverbrook Art Gallery in 1959 is set to be auctioned off in London.

Tom Smart, director of the gallery, confirmed to CBC News that Beach Scene, Lancashire by British painter Laurence Stephen Lowry — or L.S. Lowry — is up for sale.

Smart said this is a process called deaccessioning. The frequency of this process varies, but this year, the gallery deaccessioned around 50 works.

The gallery informs the collections committee and the board of the decision, Smart said, and is then questioned about why the particular works are being removed from the collection.

The funds from the sale will go back into the acquisition fund, said Smart.

“We will be able to purchase new works of art that flesh out areas where we don’t have representation,” he said. 

“The curators would determine what would be a good acquisition to give a fuller picture of a particular period, or a particular movement or style.”

Lowry’s Beach Scene, Lancashire, dated 1947, depicts a bustling beach in northwest England with a large boat as the central focus and several smaller boats around it.

Smart said selling a painting is considered when the art piece is rarely exhibited, or when there are multiple other examples of work from the same artist in the collection.

In the case of this painting, Smart said there are multiple other Lowry pieces in the collection, including some that he said better represent Lowry’s work.

“Lowry’s work shows people going to work in the villages, and then the factories of Northern England and this is kind of an atypical scene of a beach scene, that as I say, it’s rarely, rarely exhibited at all,” he said. 

“So the other examples are on view and are more typical of the kind of work that you would expect to see Lowry doing.”

Beach Scene, Lancashire is estimated to sell for between $1.7 million and $2.6 million CAD or between £1 million and £1.5 million GBP, according to Sotheby’s website, where the painting is being sold.

It’s the highest estimation out of the five Lowry works that will be auctioned on Tuesday. 

The website says the painting was acquired by Lord Beaverbrook in 1955, and given to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in 1959.

Bryn Sayles, head of sale for Modern British and Irish Art at Sotheby’s, was not available for an interview. But in an emailed statement, she said when Lowry began painting in the 1920s, trips to the seaside were relatively new occurrences for mill workers and their families.

But as a child, she said Lowry travelled to Lytham St Anne’s, a seaside town in Lancashire, and was fascinated by the ships.

Sayles said Beach Scene, Lancashire is one of the best examples of Lowry’s seaside subjects to ever come to market.

“Lowry’s scenes of the seaside are rarer than his depictions of the billowing factories of the north of England,” she wrote.

“In Beach Scene, Lancashire we see Lowry at his very best, escalating the everyday scenes of the north of England to the status of high art, in a way no artist before him had.”

Fredericton resident wishes process was more public

Brian MacKinnon, a Fredericton resident and artist, said the sale concerns him.

He said this Lowry work is one of the artist’s highlights.

“It’s just majestic work. And so it’s just, it’s a loss for our legacy here in New Brunswick. We’re so lucky to have that in a small city and a small province and I doubt if there’s anything like this in Canada of this artist’s work,” said MacKinnon.

He said since the Beaverbrook Art Gallery is a public art gallery, the discussion to sell the piece should have been made more public.

“I thought this work was partially mine and yours.”

However Smart said the process is public.

He said the gallery informed the board, sent out news releases to local news agencies and applied for an export permit, which he said is a public process through the Government of Canada.

Smart said the gallery was in touch with the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation and offered the painting to them first. 

Max Aitken, the great-grandson of Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Max Aitken, said in an email that the painting was a gift from one of the Beaverbrook foundations, and confirmed that the gallery did offer the painting to the relevant foundation, which decided not to buy it.

The painting is one of 133 works Lord Beaverbrook sent to New Brunswick that were part of a decade-long legal dispute between the gallery and the Beaverbrook U.K. Foundation. In 2007 an arbitrator ruled that the gallery owned 85 of the works, including the Lowry, sent to the gallery before its opening in 1959.

A second parallel dispute with the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation for another group of 78 works was settled in 2014.

The Beaverbrook Art Gallery was officially designated the provincial art gallery of New Brunswick in 1994.

The Nouveau Sud Project, the urban circus initiative founded by Associate Professor of Theatre CarlosAlexis Cruz, is a recipient of a 2023 Knight Art + Tech Expansion Fund from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Nouveau Sud is one of 22 Charlotte-based artists and arts organizations to receive funds in 2023.

The Knight Art + Tech Expansion Fund was created “to support the long-term sustainability of Charlotte’s arts community by providing practitioners with the tools they need to increase the integration of technology in their work.” 

Cruz founded Nouveau Sud in 2014 with a McColl Award from the Arts & Science Council. Nouveau Sud, which debuted in April 2016, has continued to mount shows that address social justice issues, particularly issues of immigration and race and ethnicity. In 2020, the troupe received the prestigious Creation and Touring Grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts for its production, “La Bestia.”

The Art + Tech Expansion Fund will allow Cruz to build the capacity of Nouveau Sud in three ways: by implementing a social media plan, purchasing equipment and storage capacity for documentation and online content creation and beginning a rebranding of the urban circus company.

“Our plan is to hire a social media/marketing manager to establish a plan for growth and to better tell the story of the different facets of our work strategically,” Cruz said.  “We are aiming to clearly present our different endeavors — our soon-to-be national touring show, ‘La Bestia,’ the development of our new show, ‘Violence’ and the work that we do within our communities as part of our ensemble’s mission.”

Among the “Suds,” as the Nouveau Sud company members are called, are UNC Charlotte alumni. Learn more about Nouveau Sud and the award-winning production, “La Bestia,” in this online feature.

Stories come to life on the page and introspective figures explore inner worlds in the dreamlike illustrations of Simón Prades (previously). His surreal scenes often feature silhouettes of people peering into the unknown, whether toward a distant memory, the wilderness, or the future. Rendered in deep hues with an emphasis on the effects of light and contrast, he draws attention to human nature and universal, emotional experiences of hope, nostalgia, and wonder.

Prades has worked as a freelance illustrator for more than ten years, finding visual language to express ideas in editorial and book publishing, film, music, and advertising. His clients have included The New York Times, Penguin Random House, Scientific American, and many more. “While I still love solving problems for clients, I must say that the urge to work on more personal projects has been growing and might manifest in a book or something like that soon,” he tells Colossal.

Prades is looking forward to a project next year that merges illustration with his other passion, cycling. During a 10-day tour through the Pyrenees, he plans to capture the experience in his sketchbook. Explore more of his work on his website and Behance, and follow updates on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Introspective Figures Navigate Surreal Worlds in Simón Prades’ Illustrations appeared first on Colossal.