Peachland bid for painting record brushed aside by project in Qatar
Missed it by 7,236 people. Peachland’s attempt to set a world record for a paint-by-number project has been foiled by a rival bid from Qatar.
Between March and September 2017, a total of 6,048 people dabbed paint in one-inch squares to create a painting with a historical theme inside the Peachland Art Gallery.
Project leaders were confident that would set a world record, as the previous record was just 2,600 participants.
However, unbeknownst to the Peachland painters, a similar mass-painting project took place in December in Qatar, in the Middle East. A total of 13,284 people coloured in a 12-metre-by-seven-metre painting of Emir H.H. Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in just eight days.
The project was an initiative of the Qatar Police College, and participants included citizens, bureaucrats and prison inmates, according to The Peninsula newspaper.
The Qatari endeavour has been certified by Guinness as the most contributions to a painting by numbers.
“It has been fun for a short time being number ONE and in this way celebrating Canada’s history,” says the Peachland Art Gallery website.
Oil-rich Qatar is the world’s richest country, with a per-capita GDP of $127,600. It has been accused by some of its neighbours of funding terrorism.