Online art auction looks to raise $10K for Ukraine
Sask. artists donate more than 100 works for Canadian Red Cross fundraiser
More than one hundred pieces of art are up on the auction block as the Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting looks to raise at least $10,000 to donate to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, which was invaded by Russian military forces in February.
The pieces include paintings, sculptures and pottery from artists such as Marlessa Wesolowski, Marge and Gerald Gessop and Brandi Hofer, among other artists. Bids can be placed online.
“It's devastating, feeling quite helpless here,” said Wesolowski, an artist with Ukrainian roots who lives and works in Saskatoon.
All of the profits from the auction will go to the Canadian Red Cross Ukrainian Crisis Appeal. The goal is to achieve about $10,000 to $15,000 in bids by the time the auction closes for the 136 pieces by May 8. The auction opened April 13.
Wesolowski spotted an email sent out by Robin Schlaht, president of the Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting, and immediately responded, adding she was very thankful to support the efforts in any way she could.
Wesolowski, whose family immigrated to Canada from Ukraine more than a century ago, donated two pieces of art — Conversations With #1 and Plato's Pattern.
“For geometric motifs, there's a long, ancient history especially with, I'd say, Ukrainian art,” Wesolowski explained. Her piece Conversations With #1 is the first in a series of six pieces, features striking colours and line work.
Karen Whitney is an artist with the Moose Jaw Art Guild who donated two pieces to the auction. Whitney got the idea to raise money after seeing news about the invasion of Ukraine and “feeling very helpless.”
“The art work and everything jumped into my mind,” she explained.
Whitney reached out to the art gallery in Moose Jaw, which did not have the capacity to hold an online auction but they connected her with the Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting.
Some of the art was available in the Saskatchewan Network for Art Collecting inventory, while some pieces were donated and others consigned for the auction, said Schlaht.
“Some of the (provincial art) guilds had been thinking, the Moose Jaw guild in particular, had been thinking about doing floral scenes and that was the original discussion,” Schlaht said.
Schlaht then thought there might be artists who would be interested in contributing some of their work but who would not have anything that fits into the floral theme, so it was decided to open up scope of the works being auctioned.
“There are quite a few floral scenes but really there's everything you can pick out, lots of different pieces,” Schlaht said.
The pieces depict some familiar landscapes to those who've spent time in and around Regina, such as the stretch of Highway 11 in Chamberlain.