City Park Trail - contermporary Canadian landscape by Maxim Grunin

"City Park Trail" takes the viewer into a picture space, reminding of a park trail. This piece is made with the use of broad paint application. Brush, palette knife and paint spills create a vibrant surface that the viewer would want to examine up close. Subdued dark purples, grays, browns, greens and black make up the shadow areas of the piece. Subtle grades of orange-brown, brown-green, gray, ochre and highlights set the mid-tone and the light in the painting. "City Park Trail" is 36" X 24", acrylic, 2009.

Award Recipient Maxim Grunin MFA

In 2007 I was nominated to receive an Honoris Causa. The recipients of this award are selected by The National Ethnic Media And Press Council of Ontario. Every year one or more people are nominated for the award by every ethnic community media office. The candidates have to have a history of contribution to their community. I was picked by the Russian media due to my close to 8 years involvement in private art education. Newcomers and art students of Russian background often lack the information on how the Canadian fine arts education works. I shared my personal experience via media interviews, documentaries and articles. As a result many enthusiastic students of Russian background enrolled in art programs throughout our province. When I came to Canada in 1992 there weren't many resources on what a competitive fine arts portfolio was or what were the steps to getting an undergraduate or a post graduate degree in art. Canada was a new country with new rules.