THE UMBRELLA

There are fundraisers and then, there are fundraisers. I just participated in a unique one.  

Our local Musée Régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges is in dire need of roof repairs. Madeleine Turgeon, president of a local art group "Autour de Nous", came up with an interesting concept. Why not have artists paint umbrellas and subsequently sell these "one-of-a-kind" creations to help pay for a new museum roof? 

Participating artists were required to purchase a blank, white umbrella for $20.00 and we had about a month to paint our idea with acrylics on an alien nylon surface. The final chef-d'oeuvres would be sold for $75.00 a piece at an upcoming event.

Symbolically, our brollies would protect the roof until its eventual replacement.

Painting the umbrella was a bit of a challenge. We were told to leave some white areas unpainted to create a luminous product. The surface tended to bounce as I applied the paint. I wanted accurate lines so the application had to be sure and smooth.  

We presented our finished pieces Tuesday night. A facsimile of a "red carpet" was set up and each artist had to slowly reveal their umbrella on the proverbial catwalk. MEOW!!! We were not forewarned of this in advanced and I, "Queen of Klutz", managed to trip and ruffle up the red footway. A little comic relief never hurts I guess.

The event was a success and all present seemed to appreciate the arty umbrellas. Christian Gonzalez posted a video of our red carpet stroll on his blog "Je suis ma ville".

Here's mine.  Enjoy the rain!




Update June 3rd, 2014:


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