Artists from across Alberta have been called on to celebrate the safeguarding of natural spaces in a touring exhibition known as the Forest Show. One of the conservation minded people participating in the gallery presentation, now appearing at the Leighton Art Centre, is Turner Valley’s Mady Thiel-Kopstein.
The local artist described the piece of her work selected for the Forest Show.
“I did a silhouette of trees with a dark background on wood panel and I called it Wood on Wood, Series 1,” Thiel-Kopstein said.
The Forest Show is making its final Alberta stop at the Leighton Centre near Millarville. The Alberta Society of Artists assembled the show, which will be on display at the centre through Saturday, July 9. It commemorates what the United Nation’s General Assembly has designated as the International Year of the Forest 2011. The juried show is intended to celebrate the important role forests play in everyday life and the need to preserve them.
Like so many Alberta artists Thiel-Kopstein was invited to submit three pieces for consideration. Her wood on wood piece was chosen for the exhibit in what she described as a very special honour.
“I’m always very happy to be involved in an art show,” she said. “The exposure is really nice but it’s even better to be selected for something that’s really meaningful to me. I am a big hiker and I am out in the woods a lot. So if I am depicting something I feel strongly about and other people appreciate it then I am very happy about that.”
Megan Kerluke, program director at the Leighton Centre, said the nature of the show made it a perfect fit for the art facility.
“We decided to have this exhibition here because it so educational” she said. “The Leighton Centre is on 80 acres in the Foothills and the area is something we’re trying to preserve and not develop. This show really speaks to that vision of letting people have somewhere to go and experience nature.”
Special events are being planned at the facility around the Forest Show, which features 50 pieces in a variety of media.
The opening reception for the exhibition goes Saturday, June 11 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. It is happening a week after the show debuted in the gallery to give some distance between it and the Clothesline Festival and Sale, which took place Sunday, May 29. An En Plein Air outdoor painting class for people, who work in oils, goes June 11 and June 12 featuring Calgary painter Sharon Lynn Williams.
A dependable pair of shoes will be a must for the nature walk planned for Saturday, June 25 from 10 a.m to 3 p.m.
Kerluke described this excursion as a true open-air adventure.
“The hiking one is really good for people who have a real interest in the outdoors ” she said. “It’s for artists, gardeners, hikers, naturalists and people like that. You can bring your sketch book and camera, take notes and photos and learn a lot about our environment.”
All these courses require pre-registration. Call 403-931-3633. Anyone coming out for one of these activities will also want to check out the Forest Show itself.
Local artist Thiel-Kopstein said the exhibition features a diverse range of work all built around its common woodland theme.
“They sent every artist a booklet of all the represented pieces,” she said “Everybody I have shown it to is taken by what they chose for the show, in that every piece is completely different from the others. I thought the jury did a real good job in choosing the things they did. I think it’s very telling how we can all deal with the same thing but everybody has their own idea in how to express it. ”
For more information on the show and the Leighton Art Centre, Gallery and Museum go to www.leightoncentre.org
