Weyburn Credit Union turns 75 in 2019. To celebrate the occasion, they are putting together a calendar which aims to highlight what makes Weyburn what it is. To get the images, they held the Weyburn in Focus Photography and Fine Art competition over the summer.

Tuesday morning, they announced who the winners were.

Tana Cugnet won the first place prize of $1,000 with her acrylic painting “A Familiar View”.

Cugnet, who was born and raised in Weyburn, started painting two years ago, and participated in the 2017 local art adjudication, and had a painting chosen for the Saskatchewan Summer exhibition at the Signal Hill Art Centre this year.

A fibre art piece entitled “Storm Clouds over Second and Coteau” by Brenda King won the second place prize of $500. King has been challenging herself to create art using fabric in recent years, instead of using patterns. She found it fun to match the fabrics up to the architectural and scenic elements of the actual location.

“Elevator at Twilight”, a photograph by Bill Allen, won the third place prize of $250. Allen, who is from Ralph, looks to capture unstaged moments in life, and his photographs range from storms to sunrises and sunsets. He aims to capture magical moments just as the eye sees them.

“We were looking for artwork we could use in our office locations because we’re ultra-local, and we would love to have some art that reflected our great community in our offices,” explained Tana Torkelson, the vice-president of marketing for Weyburn Credit Union.

In addition to the three prize winners, there were nine other finalists, who all received a prize of $100.

o Chris Borshowa: “We Found Love”, photograph

o Dallin Chicoine: “Weyburn Museum”, watercolour and ink

o Jenn Cugnet: “Cirsium Arvense”, photograph

o Courtney Kesslering: “Weyburn at Sunset”, photograph

o Krista Klemmer: “Signal Hill Summer”, photograph

o Marilyn Nelson: “Precision from a Distance”, oil canvas

o Kari Nikolejsin: “Nikolejsin Ladybug”, photograph

o Andrea Sidloski: “Corner Blossoms”, acrylic on canvas

o Keyanna Swanson: “Saskatchewan Irises”, watercolour

You can see the works of all the finalists here.

The winning entries will be displayed at the Weyburn Arts Gallery in the Weyburn Credit Union in January and February of 2019, with a reception to be held in January. The entries will also be included in the planned 75th anniversary 2019 calendar, which WCU is hoping to have available in late October.