I am floating around on cloud 9 after receiving news yesterday that the Federation of Canadian Artists has elected me to Senior Status, and I am now officially an SFCA. (And no, not “senior” in terms of age.) It is the highest level achievable at the FCA. With more than 2800 members across Canada, only about 80 have Senior signature status.
Let me back up a bit here with some history of the FCA for context (excerpt from their website:)
The Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) is a registered charity founded in 1941 by professional Canadian working artists including Group of Seven luminaries Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, and A.Y. Jackson. The first National Executive Council was led by Andre Bieler, and Lawren Harris was the BC region’s first Chairman. Other notable founding members included Emily Carr and the Honorable Mark Kearley.
I received my Active membership (first level) by jury in the year 2000, which required submitting 10 images. It was done by actual slide back then, and required shipping 3 paintings to Vancouver for live adjudication. A few years ago, I accidentally let my membership lapse and had to re-apply, essentially starting from scratch. Last year I received my Active status by jury for the second time, and proceeded to work on applying for Signature status.
Attaining Signature status is a long process, requiring being accepted into a minimum of seven adjudicated exhibitions within 4 years. I got to work and managed to be accepted into seven exhibitions within a year and a half, and was awarded 3 honourable mentions along the way.
The second requirement is a submission of portfolio of ten paintings which are adjudicated by a panel of 20 SCFA jurors. Once the digital portfolio is accepted, three of the ten paintings are shipped to Vancouver for the live jury. This is the first time I have applied for Signature Status. I was hoping to attain Associate Status, but completely prepared to have to apply again and then someday apply for Senior Status.
The phone rang yesterday - it was the FCA calling to inform me that the jury didn’t think my work met the requirements for associate signature status level ….long pause… but rather Senior Status level. In other words, I had moved past AFCA and straight to SFCA.
I am thrilled and honoured to be part of this group of Canadian Painters, and pleased to share the portfolio that I submitted, below.
All but three of these works reside in private collections. “Arts and Vines” is available, while “London in the Rain” and “Soho” will be part of my November exhibition.
Congratulations to all of the new signature members for reaching this creative milestone! An exhibition of the new associate and senior members is now on at the Federation Gallery on Granville Island, Vancouver B.C. Entitled “Success! A Celebration of Creative Milestones” runs until May 2, 2021.
