Showtime

What: 38th Annual Art Auction Where: Dundas Valley School of Art, 21 Ogilvie St., Dundas When: Saturday, April 12. Doors open 7 p.m. Tickets: $25 at the door, $20 in advance. Free preview hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday Phone: 905-628-6357

She has the kind of face that catches your eye. Her slinky black dress adds to the air of mystery and power. A spindly tree in the distance bends away from her.

This is a striking woman. She has to be to carry off that hairdo -- dark tresses rising above her head in the shape of a diamond.

She lives in Joe Trifiletti's bold, enigmatic painting, Last Tree in Sight. It goes on the auction block Saturday night along with about 1,500 other artworks at the Dundas Valley School of Art.

The 38th annual auction is by far the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Dundas school. The selections -- by both established and emerging artists -- run the gamut in size, style and media.

This year's offerings encompass more landscapes than you can shake a mahlstick at.

There's a jewel of an oil painting by Edouard Pail (circa 1851-1916). He sets his shepherdess and her flock against a warm, sunny sky. The flowering vegetation in the foreground is built up with many small brush strokes loaded with pinks and greens.

The French painter specialized in pastoral landscapes with an Impressionist feel to them.

The Bath House, by Guennadi Kalinine of Dundas, was painted recently, but sparkles like a late 19th-century Russian landscape. The trees and golden grasses around the wooden building sway so convincingly that you can almost hear the rustling.

The trees in Janet Parker's All Friends Together, Alberta, are calmer. The conical conifers dominate the midground. Their stillness contrasts with the white clouds billowing above.

Paul Simon's near-panoramic photograph of Dundurn Castle allows the Hamilton landmark to take centre stage.

Sally Glanville eschews landscape in her pastel painting. Her two ostriches dancing against a plain white background are sure to raise everyone's spirits.

All the above works are for sale in the live auction, which comprises about 55 pieces and starts at 8 p.m. Saturday. Also represented in that section are Giselle Comtois, Paul Fournier, Conrad Furey, Catherine Gibbon, Marla Panko, E. Robert Ross, Barb Sachs and Cheryl Takacs, among others.

The silent auction fills half a dozen rooms with goodies, but my own favourite is the 3D room upstairs, where you'll find fabric art, furniture and, of course, ceramics.

A set of four Richard Fisher pots embellished with his trademark dragonfly is the ultimate in functional pottery. Val Jackson's raku boxes with gorgeously misshapen lids are funky but still fully functional.

With Catherine Gill's ceramic sculptures, on the other hand, their only function is to make you smile. Her anthropomorphic animals include a billy goat who stands on two feet, wears a blue apron and serves up a plate of metal resembling curly pasta.

And Ivan Duguay's mixed-media sculptures tell tales. Funny-faced Odette, for instance, loves her new hairstyle, and Garnet fears his nose ring will frighten his friends.

The silent auction begins Thursday morning and ends on Saturday night after the live auction.

Regina Haggo, a former professor of art history at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, teaches at the Dundas Valley School of Art.

dhaggo@thespec.com