Photo Based Art by Jessie Parker, Ottawa, Canada

I am excited to announce that I won 2 International awards through the January competition at Light Space Time Online Gallery. This was a competition themed "Women Only" and there were over 1200 entries by 320 artists in all media from 35 countries worldwide. I won First Place for Other Media (Digital Art) for "Dance The Night Away", also Third Place Overall .

I am very excited to announce that I have been accepted to show at the International Juried Toronto Art expo, to be held at the Toronto Concention Centre , April 20-22, 2012.

I am told that there will be 200 exhibitors from 12 countries showing there, and over 20,000 people visit that event. Wow! My husband Bob and I will be in attendance throughout the show. We look forward to seeing you there.

This is a bit belated. The Expo was very successful from the point of view of public reaction to my work. I was swarmed with people fascinated and puzzled by the medium. Everyone wanted to know all about what it was and how did I do it. The second day I brought my Wacom tablet to demonstarte at the request of some who actually came back a second time to see it.

Many people said they had to try 4 or 5 times before they could catch me to talk to, as I was so busy with questions. In fact ...

It has been a hectic, laborious process getting ready for the big Show. About 6 weeks solid, with all the little details. Over $4000 in printing,show costs. Kind of reminds me of getting ready for a wedding: lists,lists,too much on the mind at night, early mornings.

But it has been exciting. Can hardly wait to see it all displayed at the Show. We set up this afternoon, and the Grand Vernissage, by private invitation only. If everyone brings all they are allowed, we will have over 300 p...

In preparation for the Ottawa Art Expo on Oct 29,30,in which I have a booth, I booked a print job for some 2012 calendars featuring my photobased digital paintings for the reproductions kiosk. Last year the same company did a great job printing the same type of calendar, so I thought I was "safe" using them again. BIG mistake!!. The results were so dark that the calendars were unsalable, and will have to be turfed out, as I can't allow my name to be connected with substandard work.

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Upcoming , and very exciting,is the Ottawa Art Expo, Oct 29,30, at St Elias Centre, the Greek Orthodox Church opposite Mooneys Bay. 10am to 5pm both days. Free admission,freeparking.

I will be showing 16 large photobased digital paintings, plus some portfolio prints. They are also showing some reproductions outside the main room. For that I am showing 2012 calendars of a collection of my photobased digital paintings. This year they can facilitate Visa,Mastercard.

Hope to see you ...

It has been a busy fall. I am in the " Selections 2011" juried show at the Shenkman Centre,Trinity Gallery,Salon A,(showing "Upstaged"), and at the same time just opposite ,at the Arteast Promenade Gallery, I am showing "Getting the Run Around: ode to bureaucracy", in the 2010 Award Winners show. Both shows are up until October 25.

I am also in the annual Arteast show called "Arteast Juried Award Show" as usual, showing "Venus Visits Venice" and...

"Art on the Farm" is an annual event held in August at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada, spread out on a huge lawn space with towering trees all around. 68 artists ranging from hobbiests to professionals participated. We all had to use canopy tents, which was quite time consuming to set up. Our display of 18 photo based works, took 2.5 hours to set up as this was our first attempt at this type of display.

We had a steady stream of visitors, ...until we were subjected...

I am just back from seeing the Elaine Fleck Gallery show , in which I had 2 art works,"Dance the Night Away" and "Upstaged" ,both 20"x30" on canvas. There was a lot of positive reaction to these pieces.

From feedback,the conclusion of the gallery was that they would be a lot more powerful and just the right size for over a fireplace or sofa at the 30"x45" size. So, I will be offering that size now for Limited Editions especially for photo-paintings done in oils technique.

Artists...

On May 2, I had the pleasure to give a talk to the Manotick Art Association at their meeting room in St Paul's Anglican Church on Bridge St in Manotick.

They are a very friendly and lively group. Amix of both hobbiests and professionals, they are obviously quite passionate about their art. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

My topic was "Promoting and Protecting Your Art Online". In the process, we touched on some controversial topics, including issues around derivative works ...