In April 1969, the University Women’s Club of St. Thomas packed the Memorial arena for a night of art. Local auctioneer “Smokey” Meeks talked the crowd into spending more than $5,000 in a little over an hour. That money started a permanent art collection for Elgin County, and the club used it to buy its first work: Talbot Street, a painting by local artist Clark McDougall.
The gallery that grew up around that collection is now the St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre, and it still raises money the same way. Its Annual Fall Art Auction is on Friday, November 6th, and one of the works for sale is a McDougall.
It is A Morning Affect in the Hills (Near Glen Allen, Ontario), from 1952, and as of October 28th it carries the highest value of the 22 works listed for sealed bids online: a fair market value of $8,500, with a minimum bid of $500. McDougall, who died in 1980, is known for the bold black enamel outlines around his landscapes and buildings. However, that style was once held against him: in 1967, the Elgin County Board of Education passed on buying his work because “He outlines in black.”
The list reaches far beyond Elgin County. It includes a 1969 lithograph by the British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, valued at $7,500, a 1980 ink and pencil crayon drawing by London artist Greg Curnoe, and a 1968 etching by David Blackwood, the printmaker best known for his scenes of Newfoundland.
Several pieces come from closer to home. There is Farmhouse Pump, a 1942 linocut by St. Thomas artist Carolyn Curtis, a 1935 watercolour by Louise Chapman-Vincent, who settled in St. Thomas, and Bear, a 2024 mixed-media piece by St. Thomas artist Laura Woermke. Curtis and McDougall were both among the local artists who gave work to that first auction in 1969.
You can see the works in person at the Art Centre, 301 Talbot Street, until November 6th, and admission is free. The gallery is open Tuesday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. A silent auction also runs in person until November 6th.
If you can’t make the evening, you can place a sealed bid on the Art Centre’s auction page until November 5th. You give the lot number, the artist’s name, your bid, your full name, and a phone number and email. Minimum bids start at $50 on five of the works and run to $500 on the McDougall. The highest sealed bid on each work becomes its starting bid at the live auction, so you can still be outbid on the night. Winning bidders will be contacted after Tuesday, November 10th, and all artwork must be picked up at the Art Centre, because nothing is shipped.
The live auction runs from 7 to 10:30 p.m. on November 6th. Tickets are $25. You can call 519-631-4040 or buy them on the Art Centre’s website. The money supports the Art Centre’s exhibitions, education programs and care of its permanent collection, which has grown to more than 2,100 works since that first night at the arena.
The auction is not the only thing on the Art Centre’s calendar. On November 14th, it opens Framework, an exhibition inspired by historian Paul Baldwin’s research into architect Neil R. Darrach. It is a partnership with the Princess Avenue Playhouse and the Elgin County Museum, and it runs until February 13th, 2027.
Earlier coverage: The Historian Who Has Tracked St. Thomas City Hall’s Architect Since 1974
Sources: St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre: 2026 Fall Art Auction · Art Centre: Special Events · Art Centre: About Us and History
By Anthony Zruna · About the LocVox Newsroom
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