The Steveston Grand Prix of Art 2024

Almost everyone who’s ever been involved in a Barigord Studios adventure has been passionate for gaming! We love board games, table games, video games, roleplaying games, and game shows! This post is best viewed on barigord.com.

The last post can be found here:

Barigord Gaming Weekly – 07/23/24 – So You Want to Build a Critter Deck

Hey Gamers! This past weekend I participated in a different kind of game: The Steveston Grand Prix of Art! The festival is a very popular annual painting competition in Steveston, British Columbia, Canada.

While I’m a competitive person, competing in lots of film competitions, I’m hardly a seasoned painter. I did the competition for the first time last year, and did okay. Here’s a post from last year:

The Barigord Art & Film Weekender – 07/25/23 – The Steveston Grand Prix of Art

This year I think I did much better, but I still have a lot to learn and a long way to grow. Towards what, I don’t know. Of course I’d love to win a prize or sell a painting, but the competition is very stiff. There are 3 divisions: pro, amateur and kids. I’m in amateur, and most of the others in with me could totally be mistaken for pros.

For the second year in a row, I was on the water, and painted a boat and a sign that said ‘No Busking Allowed.’ I have trouble resisting stuff like that. Naturally placed commentary.

I like the bottom half, but the top half is a little weird. I thought about doing it with minimal colour, maybe even monochrome. There were a lot more boats so I took the opportunity to see if I could take them out.

I think I have a natural tendency towards storytelling and expressionism in my painting. Realism is great, but the sign spoke to me most as a comment on the place. If I could do it again, I might do some sort of juggler or musician out on the boat, or maybe even a busking sea monster.

I’ve been doing some prep for the Grand Prix. Not as much as I’d like, and I think it shows. I’m going to try and be more diligent in the coming year, and paint more often to sharpen my skills. Here are a few of my exercises:

This is from the Vancouver General Hospital area. 2.5 hours, acrylic on homemade paper.

From the False Creek area of Vancouver, looking south from Granville Island. 1.5 hours, acrylic on homemade paper.

The boat launch at Granville Island, south side on False Creek. 1.5 hours, acrylic on homemade paper.

A long-time vacant building on Granville Island, up for lease. 1.5 hours, acrylic on canvasboard. This was from Opus Art Supplies Canada Day Painting Challenge.

I’ve been doing a bit of non-landscape painting too, which is more the way I would paint if I was going to pursue it seriously. I like expressions, especially those of humans. I like how human faces can be made out of anything, and I like to make them out of weird fragments and shapes, and still have them be identifiable as both people and a particular expression.

Here are a few of my recent experiments: