An annual art prize honouring Vancouver Island painter Takao Tanabe has been awarded to Powell River’s Colleen Heslin.
Heslin, a Toronto native whose work has been exhibited in Canada, the United States and Europe, was honoured with the 5th annual Tanabe Prize for B.C. painters Tuesday, and receives a cash award of $10,000.
The prize, administered by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, is given to emerging artists in B.C. whose primary medium is painting. Heslin’s work crosses several mediums, including painting and sculpture, and incorporates dye, fabric, rope and metal.
Tanabe, 95, an Audain Prize for Visual Art winner and one of Canada’s leading painters, has lived in Parksville since 1980. One of his paintings, Sunset 7/87, recently sold at auction in Vancouver for $133,250.
