Kelowna painter’s funny face could win her a trip to Miami
A common reaction greeted Kelowna artist Janice Sich when she asked people to make a silly face so she could paint their portrait.
“They’d say, ‘Make a funny face? Why? Don’t you want to make me look beautiful?’” Sich said.
But the more whimsical and goofy, the better. That’s the premise of Sich’s Making Faces series. She’s long painted primarily landscapes of the Okanagan but recently decided to try something else.
“I though I’d loosen things up a bit,” Sich says.
Earlier this year, she entered one of the faces, known simply as Janet, in an online competition sponsored by gin-maker Bombay Sapphire. Her painting was among 459 chosen to be entered in the contest, voting for which is underway until Nov. 7.
The company says the just-for-fun competition is designed to encourage the work of “emerging artists” all over North America.
Along with Sich, two other Kelownaarea artists are featured in the competition — Noelle Nadeau Khoo and Laurie Ryan, both of West Kelowna.
The two artists whose submissions receive the most online votes (bombayartisan.com) will receive a trip to Miami to present their work at an art show.
Sich has painted 25 portraits in her Making Faces series, approaching strangers on the street as well as notable members of the community. Very few of them have said no thanks.
All of her Making Faces paintings will be shown at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art in the Rotary Centre for the Arts, starting Oct. 13.
The paintings aren’t about mocking the sitter, Sich says, as the subjects controlled the image they wanted to present to her.
“I think we all take ourselves too seriously and lose the playfulness we were born with,” Sich writes on the Bombay Sapphire website. “This exhibition is about making fun of ourselves and bringing out our playfulness.”