Huntsville artist Kate Santos continues her battle with cancer in her homeland of Spain, where she took up residence last year.

Well known in Huntsville for her vibrant ink-and-acrylic paintings, Santos was also a committed community supporter. Amongst her endeavours, she was a colour consultant for Huntsville’s new Algonquin Theatre building, designed the first brochures for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and provided graphics for the local library’s membership cards. Kate was known to many in the arts community through her involvement in the Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour, Muskoka Arts and Crafts, and the Huntsville Art Crowd.

Although she has the loving support of her family in Spain, Santos’ resources are limited in the face of her recent illness. To help alleviate her economic burden, a few of her friends in the local artistic community have organized Cabin Fever III, a reprise of the annual mid-winter art show Kate held at her home in Huntsville.

Assembled in the upstairs gallery at Eclipse Art and Design on Huntsville’s Main Street, the show will feature the work of many of Santos’s friends and colleagues from the Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour and the larger arts community in Muskoka. Well known local artists, such as painters Doug Dunford and Catherine O’Mara, printmaker Janet Stahle-Fraser, potter Lorraine Eidlitz, cabinetmaker Stephen Sprague and felter Sherrie Peddie, were quick to respond to the call for contributors.

Also bringing in work are ceramicist Suzann Partridge, folk art carver Andrea Turnbull, sculptor Brenda Wainman Goulet and weaver Marni Martin. Pieces for the home by blacksmith and wood-worker Jim Carter will be featured in the show, along with works from Donna De Vries Buchan, Naomi Brinkhof and Janine Marson of North Art Supplies, and Port Carling painter and recently appointed Muskoka Arts and Crafts president Sara Hall.

Along with Santos’ friends, Ana Lucia MacKenzie and Carol Pollock, who visited the artist in Spain in November, painter Vicki Dodds is helping to organize a group effort that promises to be a lively collection of art from many media.

Karin Lakatos, owner of Eclipse Art and Design and a friend of Santos, has generously agreed to donate the gallery’s share of proceedings from sales of the work of participating artists to Santos. Many of the artists are also donating their share of proceeds to the cause.

The week-long fundraiser will provide a great opportunity for artists to celebrate and support a former colleague while art lovers and collectors break the icy hold of winter by enjoying the work of prominent local artists.

Cabin Fever III opens at Eclipse Art and Design with an artists’ reception from 12 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16, and continues through Feb. 23. The gallery will remain open throughout the week of the show.