Banff artist Christine Ford brought home the hardware last week and in keeping with the time and place, she’s got herself a large custom belt buckle.
Ford, a fourth-generation resident of Banff, received the Western Art Gallery’s Committee’s Choice award during the Calgary Stampede Showcase Stir’up event on July 2. The award was for her oil-on-canvas painting Looking for a Treat of three horses standing at a barbwire fence on a windy summer day.
“The whole idea is to stir up excitement and it is kind of the buyer’s night,” Ford said of the Stir’up event. “I went in to go to that and it wasn’t until I got there that I discovered I won the award. We were doing the walk around to see everything that was going on and I ran into a friend who said ‘I see that you won an award,’ so I was quickly running over to go and see what it was.”
The award just happened to be the top award for the Western Art Gallery exhibition, which is one of the shows that comprise the much larger Western Showcase.
The 2014 Western Art Gallery features 34 artists, new and emerging, whose work reflects “the life and times of Western Canadians of the past and present.”
Ford has five paintings, including her award-winning 24-by-36-inch painting, in this juried exhibition. It’s the fourth time she has exhibited in the Western Art Gallery during the Stampede.
It’s been a good year for Ford, with a solo exhibition at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies last September, a trio show at the Whyte with Lynne Huras and Patti Dyment in May and now this award.
“It’s really reinvigorated me and got me excited for where to go next,” she said of the award. “It’s a real tip of the hat and it’s given me a lot of confidence. Now I’m thinking, OK, what’s the next step I can take?”
Ford is hoping the award will open some doors and she is looking forward to seeing what comes next.
“You never know where one show or one thing will take you,” she said.
One of the committee members told her that only 13 per cent of the artists who apply to the Western Art Gallery are accepted.
“It’s something I hope will kick start me or springboard me into my next big adventure here. I’m hopeful,” she said.
The belt buckle, featuring the Calgary Stampede brand and an artist’s palette with paintbrushes, is strictly ornamental and Ford is planning to frame it.
She has no plans to wear it as it is a special award as it’s, well, huge.
“I think its pretty special and I can’t imagine, it’s pretty large. I’ll need bigger pants,” she said, laughing.
