Hundreds of impressive carvings, in addition to wildlife paintings and photographs, decked walls and tables for the 27th annual Pacific Brant Carving and Art Show in Parksville last weekend, April 8-9.
Everything from Brants to owls, whales to turtles and more were on display at the Community Centre, carved into wood and stone.
Seminars on wildlife photography, a woodturning demonstration and more took place, along with the carving competition.
On Saturday, April 8, show chair Bill Beese said the event looked to be even stronger than last year, which had been the return of the show to Parksville.
“It looks like we’re up in both (competitors and attendees) this year,” said Beese.
Carvers came from as far as Saskatchewan and Washington state to enter a carving into the show, which Beese said is one of the largest in North America.
Diane Craven travelled from Calgary to enter six pieces into various categories of the carving competition, not to mention several other pieces for friends who couldn’t attend.
“The venue is awesome, and the turnout is higher than last year,” she said, adding that there is often a worry that the number of carvers is diminishing.
However, in addition to the competition’s youth category, which saw several entries this year, the show offered a Brant painting competition/workshop for youth to get the next generation of carvers involved.
Craven said she travels this far to meet more people in the competitive carving world, and to have her work critiqued by different judges in an effort to see where she can improve.
Entries of Brant carvings were particularly strong this year, said Beese.
Some of the local winners from the competition in the expert level were:
- Barry Saunders from Parksville in third for realistic marsh ducks, and second for upland game birds.
- Dan Vukicevic from Bowser in third for realistic geese and swans.
- Dieter Golze from Nanoose Bay in third for large songbirds, and first in realistic miniature land birds.
- Sharon Hubbard from Parksville won Best Endangered Species with a Burrowing Owl, 1st in antique-style geese, swans and confidence, and second in antique-style shorebirds.
- Jai Kealy from Parksville won second in the realistic water mammals category and first in the other carving media category.