After taking a year off, the 7th Annual Steveston Grand Prix of Art returns this Saturday, Sept. 23 all across the village.
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., more than 100 artists of all ages and experience levels will race against the clock for cash prizes in a three-hour, international, plein-air painting challenge.
Hosted by Phoenix Art Workshop and Britannia Heritage Shipyards, the event sees artists assigned a random painting location and, with easels and art supplies in tow, scattered throughout the village.
At 1 p.m., artists will be asked to put down their brushes, return to the shipyards and prepare their paintings for display and judging.
All partners, artists and volunteers are then treated to lunch, with an invitation to the general public to join in for the live entertainment, the award ceremony and the sale and display of artwork.
Registered photographers are also encouraged to document the entire event, uploading five, unedited images before midnight Saturday for a photo essay contest.
The exhibition of paintings will remain on display in the Seine Net-Loft at Britannia Heritage Shipyards on Sunday, Sept. 24 from noon until 4 p.m.
The event organizer, Mark Glavina, owner of the Phoenix Art Workshop, told the Richmond News last year that he was having to put the event on hold due to, what he called, a lack of support from the city and volunteers.
Glavina said that, in 2015, the city requested it be removed as a host partner and, thus, didn’t supply the tents for the artists, as it had done previously.
For more information, go to GrandPrixOfArt.ca.
