Operated by the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society

November 17, 2005 - January 7, 2006

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A Fine Line: Works by Dennis Budgen

Special Art Exhibition Program Celebrating the Centennial of Alberta

Dennis Budgen's work is a testament to the art of illustration. His award-winning illustrations are renowned for their remarkable attention to detail and sensitivity to the spirit of their subjects. Budgen began working as a professional illustrator while attending the Alberta College of Art and Design, working as an architectural illustrator at Brandel Design. After graduating, he attended the Illustrator's Workshop in New York City. In New York he studied under such illustration masters as Alan Cober, Bob Peak, Fred Otnes, Bernie Fuchs and Mark English.

Budgen returned to Calgary in the 1970s and began working for Crow Quill Studios, a young dynamic group of graphic designers and illustrators. Budgen's illustration projects from this time encompassed advertising, editorial, corporate, architectural and information illustrations. It was here that he discovered his passion for information illustration.

By the late 1980s Dennis Budgen became established as a mural painter. Of note is his massive 63' x 14'-20' mural for Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre near Fort MacLeod. It was at this time that Budgen was commissioned to produce a naturalist sketchbook for a new World Heritage Site on Baffin Island called Katnnilik Park. The work from the Baffin Island sketchbook won an Award of Excellence from Communication Arts magazine and gained international recognition for Dennis Budgen.

During the 1980s Budgen began teaching at the Alberta College of Art and Design and has influenced a generation of illustrators. Dennis Budgen is currently the Head of Program, Visual Communications Design. Along with his teaching and administrative duties he maintains an active illustrative practice and continues to inspire the next generation of illustrators.

This retrospective exhibition examines Budgen's work from the standpoint of the artistic process. Budgen, in his own practice and as an educator, emphasizes the role and importance of research, exploration and development when approaching any visual problem. This intellectual rigor if found throughout his work and is evidenced in his fidelity to a subject. In this exhibition Budgen's career is documented from sketch to finished piece and as such illustrates the process involved in visual problem solving. This show is comprised of 107 pieces and includes sketches, working drawings, paintings, sketchbooks and prints. A section of the exhibition is devoted to works by illustrators that Budgen has influenced.

Alison Miyauchi
Curator

List of Images (left to right, top to bottom):

1. Dennis Budgen - Great Blue Heron, 1997; watercolour on paper. Illustration for the "Field and Stream Magazine". Image courtesy of the artist.
2. Dennis Budgen - Wetlands, 2003; watercolour on paper. Illustration for the Griffith Woods Interpretive Panel. Image courtesy of the artist.
3. Dennis Budgen - Illustration for the Bow River Trail Interpretive Panel, 1989; watercolour on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.
4. Dennis Budgen - High Arctic, 2001; watercolour on paper. Illustration for the Ellesmere Island documentary of the Geological Survey of Canada's scientific excursion to the high Arctic. Image courtesy of the artist.
5. Dennis Budgen - Basic Bugs, 1997; watercolour on paper. Illustration for the "Outdoor Life" Magazine. Image courtesy of the artist.