Natalie Forrestall Memorial Children Art Prize at The EX

     Every year I organize a prize in our mother's name: The Natalie Forrestall Memorial Children's Art Prize. We sponsor this prize at The Annapolis County Exhibition's art competition. The Ex, as all the locals call it, is the BIG county fair and something my mother and grandmother loved going to, and taking us all to every August. Going to the Ex was (and is) one of the highlights of fun for kids summers in Western Nova Scotia.
     Our dad sponsors two of the prizes as memorial prizes for our grandmother Esther Forrestall and mom, Natalie Forrestall; the best watercolour and the best watercolor in show. And as a group, my brother Frank, my sister, Renee and I get together and buy some good quality art supplies to give as a prize for the best piece of children's art in the under age 8 category. This year the prize (which will be judged and decided on today) will include canvases, acrylic paint, craypas, watercolor pad, sketch books, watercolor pencils, brushes etc...In this area of the province, it's very difficult to find good quality art supplies, so this is our way of putting a nice and varied supply into the hands of a child who loves to make art.

It is also a small way of ours of acknowledging our wonderful mother, who was an art teacher for many years in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and helped support the family as my father painted. Our mother was a very talented painter and the woman who encouraged all of us to paint, draw and celebrate life by looking at and making art every day. To you mom!

A couple of entries in the drawing category August 2009.

And the 2010 winner of the Natalie Forrestall Memorial Art Basket is Jacob 

with his winning drawing of a birdhouse (below).

---Monica Forrestall