Skip to content

Alberta Art Tour showcasing region's talent

The Most Beautiful Art Tour in Alberta is celebrating Alberta Culture Days with eight open houses in the Foothills from Sept. 27-29.
Art Tour - Eversfield Ceramics 1201
David Barnes of Eversfield Ceramics poses in his studio on Sept. 21. (Brent Calver/Western Wheel)

The Most Beautiful Art Tour in Alberta is celebrating Alberta Culture Days with eight stops in the Foothills.

Take a drive along the Cowboy Trail and enjoy free admission to gallery and studio open houses throughout Turner Valley, Black Diamond, and Okotoks.

The tour will highlight four galleries—Leighton Art Centre, Bluerock Gallery, Lineham House Galleries, and Okotoks Art Gallery—and four artist studios—Kristoferson Studio, Mady Thiel-Kopstein, Eversfield Ceramics and Firebrand Glass Studio.

World-renowned Vulcan artist Steve Coffey is the main attraction at Bluerock Gallery on Saturday, with a display of his new oil works Paint Travels and an opportunity to meet and greet the artist from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Gallery owner Tarek Nemr said Coffey's work has been featured at the gallery for several years. Travel Paints will be on display until Oct. 28.

Coffey has curated travelling exhibitions, created large-scale public sculptures, taught college and conducted workshops and art residencies. He began working with metal sculptures before developing a love of drawing and presentation and delving into oil pant. His work is exhibited in private and public collections around the world.

“Because we are part of the art tour we wanted to have an event for Alberta Culture Days,” said Nemr. “Having an art show opening that day, it’s nice to have a big event.”

On Sunday, Bluerock Gallery is launching its pop-up markets, featuring valued potters Mindy Andrews and Lisa McGrath and jeweler Linda Catt throughout the day. It will be the first of a series of pop-up markets this year at the gallery.

“They’ll be bringing a lot of work with them,” said Nemr of the three artists. “They will have their collection and their work that people will get to see.”

Eversfield Ceramics is no stranger to the tour, but owner and ceramist David Barnes said it was his first time doing the tour in conjunction with the Alberta Culture Days, which added extra pressure he is ready to meet.

“I’m hoping it’s going to be a success,” he said. “I’m in a constant process of creating new work, if you like, so there will be new work being produced when people come to visit me.”

Barnes received his diploma in ceramics at the Kent Institute of Design in 1977, and after living and working in England and France, Barnes and his wife, Glynis, moved to Canada in 2006. He opened his workshop outside of Black Diamond in 2013.

While Barnes’ workshop does produce a limited number of functional wear ceramics, his passion is for the art.

“I’m more interested in the sculptural and experimental side of it, as opposed to producing hundreds of the same thing for people to buy on a regular basis,” he said. “I try not to make too many mugs, lets put it that way. I’ve done that in the past, and my interests have moved elsewhere now.”

Focused on developing new ideas and techniques, Barnes said his work aims to draw people in.

“I like to create some forms of more interesting sculptures, things that engage the viewer,” he said.

Two of Barnes’ works are on display at Bluerock Gallery in Black Diamond. He said one was based on the Book of Enoch, and the second, called This is Circle was inspired by a lack of time.

“There’s sort of a race and there’s never enough time to do anything, and as you get older time starts to run out,” he said.

Barnes’ works have been featured in many exhibitions, galleries, and museums, and in 2005 received the highest honour in the ceramic competition at the Festival d'Argile (Roumazieres) in Charente, France, where his work is now on permanent display. Recently, his Strata Vessels were named runner-up in Avenue Magazine’s first Made in Alberta Awards.

His works are featured at the Leighton Art Centre in Millarville as well as Bluerock Gallery.

In addition to producing his own art, Barnes teaches classes which see a turnover of around 18 students a week.

For the three days of the tour, visitors to Eversfield Ceramics will be treated to the gamut of ceramics; between Barnes and current students, a variety of techniques and skills—plus the firing of the kiln on Saturday—will be on display.

On Sunday, the Barnes’ will be going above and beyond for visitors by adding a little equine elegance. Dressage, cross-country, and show jumping will be on display at Eversfield Equestrian, located on the same land as the ceramics workshop and run by Barnes’ wife, Glynis.

“I’ve been doing ceramics for the last 40 years, in England and then in France and now here in Canada, and my wife’s been in horses for longer than that,” said Barnes. “I’ve been involved with the horses as well, so it’s just two businesses that we work well together.” 

Eversfield Ceramics will be open to the public Sept. 27-29 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information in the workshop, go to www.eversfieldceramics.com

The art tour is a self-drive tour, and admission to each venue is free.

For more information and the full event schedule, go to TheMostBeautifulArtTourInAlberta.com.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks