Local artist Rick Mintz has his latest fundraising calendar ready for sale, with proceeds going to the B.C. Children's Hospital Foundation that helps thousands of children from the north each year.
This is Mintz’s fourth year doing the calendar and he spends months creating the paintings that are featured.
This year’s theme is boats and Mintz gets his inspiration from his travels around the country and iconic images. Most of his work comes from photos he takes of an image that strikes him as interesting and then he does the painting at a later date.
“We were in P.E.I. in 2002 and I took a picture of a dinghy sitting beside the Confederation Trail, that’s one of the images included in the calendar,” Mintz explained. “In order to get all 12 paintings done I need a bit of a head start. It takes about 10 months to do all the paintings.”
He will also sell the original paintings to raise more funds for the cause, where half of the proceeds will go to B.C. Children’s Hospital.
Last year, he sold 278 calendars. He got a real boost at Studio Fair at CN Centre with the sale of 70 calendars on site and Mintz hopes to equal or better his numbers yet again this year, seeing that pandemic restrictions have lifted and attendance at the event should be stellar.
Mintz said he’ll do these calendars for as long as he’s able.
“When I commit to these things I just keep going,” Mintz said.
“And when you think about how many children are helped by the Children’s Hospital how can you not help when you can? In 2021 there were 4,910 kids from Northern Health that visited the hospital more than 7,000 times, so I do whatever I can to support the hospital that helps our kids.”
Each calendar sells for $20.
Calendars are available for sale at Studio 2880, 2880 15th Ave. To meet the artist, Mintz will be at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St., on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to sell the calendars. He will also be selling the calendars at Studio Fair Nov. 4 to 6 at CN Centre.
For more information visit www.ramart.ca or email rmintz@shaw.ca.
