Lögberg-Heimskringla - 16.12.1994, Blaðsíða 13

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 16. desember 1994 • 13
Dunn’s painting picked for Alberta poster
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Svala (Val) Dunn's painting, The Natural Forest, will be fea-
tured on the 1994 Environment Week poster highlighting
Alberta's boreal forest. The painting was chosen from 17
submissions.
painting depicting a portion
of the English Bay roadside
.done by local artist Svala
(Val) Dunn was on view throughout
Alberta at the end of Environment
Week, June 5 to 12.
Dunn’s painting, The Natural
Forest, will be featured on the 1994
Environment Week poster highlight-
ing Alberta’s boreal forest. The paint-
ing captured the attention of the
selection committee for- the annual
poster when it was chosen from 17
submissions across the province.
Dunn, a self-taught artist, has been
a resident of the Tri-town area for 30
years. Through her painting, she tries
to 'depict the beauty of natural sur-
roundings we often miss in our busy
lives.
“I like best to paint the common-
place scenes we so often fail to see in
our rush to get from one place to
another — along roadsides, an old
tree, even a stump or patch of swamp
grass.
This is the fírst time Dunn has sub-
mitted work to a panel of judges and
says it’s really exciting to have a piece
of work displayed throughout the
province. Her work was also featured
at an exclusive exhibition sponsored
by FEESA, an Environmental
Education Society, at the Muttart
Conservatory in Edmonton from June
7 to 20.
Dunn, who has worked profes-
sionally as an artist for 25 year, says
the win is “icing on the cake at this
point in my career. It may never hap-
pen again, it may be a fluke or luck,
but it’s a wonderful feeling.”
She is the “grande dame” of the
local arts community. She still teach-
es art classes in the Grand Centre
Town Hall basement and over the
past 24 years has taught 600 students
to paint.
Although Dunn is now concen-
trating on her painting full-time, she
still wants to remain active in the
community. She applauds the forma-
tion of the Allied Arts Council and
believes it will be instrumental in pro-
moting art in the Tri-town.
Dunn, who has been drawing all
her life, how works primarily in oil
(although she still dabbles in acrylic,
water-colour and pen and ink). She
put her artistic career in low gear to
raise six children, but when they left
home she put more and more energy
into making a living from her art.
She says she has slowly built up
contacts in the art community over
the years and is now represented by
the Collections Gallery in Edmonton
and by Frames’ n Things locally. She
also sells her work at all the local arts
and crafts shows, which she say are
invaluable for all the contacts she has
made with the public.
The hardest part of being an artist,
Dunn says, is selling yourself. “I have
to push myself to enter submissions
and enter shows.”
She says it’s hard to be an artist in
a small community because the leam-
ing opportunities are limited, but the
isolation has allowed her to develop
her own style and do “her own
thing.”
“Over the year’s I’ve also leamed a
lot from my students.”
At one time it'was stressful to
paint, she said, “but now I find it’s a
healing process and it helps me get
away from the world.”
Dunn showed her work on
Thursday, April 14 from 7:00 to 9:00
p.m. at Frames n’ Things during the
Arts Alive Festival. She also had
signed posters available.
The 1994 Environment Week
poster, the second in a six-year series
focusing on the Natural Regions of
Alberta, has been an annual tradition
since 1989. This year’s poster is spon-
sored by Edmonton Power.
The poster is distributed by
FEESA, An Environmental Edu-
cation Society, which is funded by
both the provincial and federal gov-
ernments. It is based in Edmonton
and has local co-ordinating groups
throughout the province.
Courtesy ofThe
Grand Centre-Cold Lake Sun.
Svala was bom in Riverton, Manitoba.
Her parents are Anna (Thorvaldson)
And the late Hlaöver Amason. Her father
came from Oddstödum in the Lund-
arreykjadalur valley in lceland.
The ICELANDIC NATIONAL LEAGUE,
its chapters and affiliates, send their best wishes for a
Glebileg Jól og Farsœlt Komandi Ar.
Join (or form) an lcelandic organization in your area and stay in touch with your heritage.

ICELANDIC NATIONAL LEAGUE
President Helgi Austman, Box 1999, Gimli Manitoba,
ROC 1B0, Tel. (204) 642-8705
Exec. Sec. Raelene Johnson, INL Headquarters Office,
699 Carter Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3M 2C3
Tel. (204) 284-3402 - Fax. (204) 284-3870
Executive Board consists of 14 Directors
CHAPTERS
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FÁLKINN
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CALGARY
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563 Woodpark Cr. SW,
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17328-86 Ave., Edmonton,
Alberta T5T 2B5
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SASKATCHEWAN
President Eric B. Stephanson
Box 5, Elfros, Saskatchewan S0A 0V0
Tel. (306) 328-2077
’VÓtnabyqqS
rc.l.,Ac tioi
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Pesident Helga Sigurdson
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President Elias Langholt,
c/o PACCAR Inc.,
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Tel. (416) 421-2660
STRÖNDIN • THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
CLUBOFB.C. (ICCofB.C.)
President Geraldine McDonald,
Apt. 204 - 8220 Jones Rd., Richmond,

B.C. V6Y1L6
Tel. (604) 279-0420
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President Leola Josefson,
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President Warren Helgason,
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