HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2019-01-17, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2019.
As 2018 turned to 2019, Blyth
artist Kelly Stevenson began sharing
her newest creations with the world:
posters for the Blyth Festival’s five
main stage shows for this upcoming
season.
Stevenson, a young artist who
lives just a few doors down from
Memorial Hall itself, was tapped to
create art for the 45th season of the
Blyth Festival last year. Her
creations began with the season
image of the newly-renovated
Memorial Hall and now she has
rolled out the posters for Jumbo,
Cake Walk, Team on the Hill, In the
Wake of Wettlaufer and Bed &
Breakfast.
While Stevenson has become
known locally for her unique and
compelling sketches, she hasn’t
often worked with colour, which was
one of the challenges presented to
her by Artistic Director Gil Garratt
for this year’s artwork.
Garratt says that Stevenson rose to
the challenge and that he’s blown
away with the images she presented
to him. He said that she was
presented with either scripts or
partial scripts and she was able to
encapsulate the stories in one image,
keeping her unique style ever-
present in her art.
Though a young woman not far
removed from her schooling,
Stevenson is already an
accomplished artist. Her first
individual show was produced at the
Bainton Gallery through the Blyth
Festival Art Gallery. She has since
shown her art around the province
and curated several shows locally as
well.
Stevenson admits that her style of
art, working with fine-tipped pens to
create mostly black-and-white
drawings, isn’t the Festival’s
traditional fare when it comes to its
posters.
With established, traditional artists
like Greg Sherwood, Ron Walker
and Randy Jones, as well as
photographer Terry Manzo, working
on season images and production
posters in recent years, Stevenson
said she was surprised when she was
approached, but also extremely
honoured.
However, Stevenson’s work has
been included often at the Blyth
Festival Art Gallery’s community
show and she has been awarded
through the Huron County Art Show
and Sale as well.
Artistic Director Gil Garratt first
approached Stevenson about the
project in the summer, e-mailing
“out of the blue” and asking if she
would be interested.
Stevenson said her art has been
very personal in recent years, not to
mention black and white, so being
commissioned for a series of images
that would have to be in colour
represented a number of changes to
the way she normally works.
While it would be difficult,
Stevenson said that didn’t dissuade
her and she was immediately
intrigued. She accepted and began
crafting some ideas right away,
although the season’s productions
had yet to be approved by the
Festival’s board of directors at the
time.
Garratt said that Stevenson has a
quickly-emerging signature style
that greatly intrigues him. Her art, he
said, is playful, but with a hint of
mystery to it. The style is very clear
and it has a simplicity to it that
attracted him.
Garratt said it was Stevenson’s
work on a calendar in 2017, which
featured landscape images, many of
them including barns, that really
made him think that Stevenson
Stevenson’s Blyth Festival offerings impress Garratt
A new season
Blyth-based artist Kelly Stevenson was tapped last year to produce the
season images for this year’s slate of Blyth Festival plays – the 45th season
of the Blyth Festival. While Stevenson’s way of creating art may be different
from artists who have worked with the Festival in the past, it was her art’s
unique qualities that attracted Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt to her for
this season. Above are images of four of the season’s five main stage productions,
created by Stevenson. Clockwise from top left: Jumbo, Cake Walk, In the Wake of
Wettlaufer and Team on the Hill. (Courtesy photos)
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Continued on page 11