Page update October 2, 2011
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A report in the Peninsula News Review:
Risk-taking pays off for contestant
Plein Air 2010 artist Ron Wilson captured first place for his rendering of Boondocks restaurant in Sidney.
Article by Andrew Farris
He jokes that it takes 71 years and two weeks to create a good painting — that’s 71 years of life experience and two weeks of putting paint to canvas.
The majority of the paintings entered by the Paint Out’s more than 50 entrants depicted the seascapes for which Sidney artists are renowned.
Wilson immigrated to Canada 18 years ago from South Africa, following his retirement from radio and television broadcasting.
He hopes to get in a lot more plein air painting while the sun is out this August.
END OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Published: August 11, 2010 1:00 PM
Ron Wilson’s years of painting experience certainly contributed to his first place award at the Sidney Plein Air Paint Out July 31 for his oil canvas of
Sidney’s Boondocks Restaurant.
By painting a restaurant scene, Wilson consciously bucked the trend. “I decided to take a chance, and I’m glad I did,” he said.
“It was not a standard subject matter, something that was thoroughly difficult to do, and he kept it very fresh,” said adjudicator Robert Genn,
a well-known Canadian artist and publisher of the internationally popular Painter’s Key newsletter.
“I cruised my eyes carefully over the whole painting and I really enjoyed the way he put in the elements very cursorily, freshly,
and particularly the young woman sitting in the doorway. It was done with grace and paucity,” Genn said.
Though his painting was just a hobby before, it took on a life of its own and as time went by he became “more and more of a professional painter.”
“What drew me to Sidney is the fact that they do have this annual competition of painting outdoors,” he said.
Next Wilson is looking forward to the Fine Arts Show at the Mary Winspear in October. “I’ve painted about 16 paintings for that,
but only five I would really consider entering,” he said with a laugh.
“When you’re painting outdoors you’re limited to about three hours before the sun moves too much.”
Wilson ruminated about the allure painting has for him.
“You kind of retreat into a zone where this whole debate about left brain and right brain carries on and time means nothing.
You just paint and paint and paint, and you always try and out-paint yourself. You’re never going to win the race.
It’s a constant challenge and it’s just something you’ve gotta do. I just couldn’t do anything else.”