A Black Diamond gallery owner is embracing the Christmas market craze by creating a market of her own.
Owner of Bluerock Gallery Karen Gimbel will have more than 30 artists from across Alberta selling their poetry, fibre arts, wearable art, jewelry and other creations out of her gallery each weekend before Christmas in what she’s calling PopUp Markets.
She will feature as many as six different artists in one day – some of who already display work in her gallery.
“Many of our artists do other things that we don’t necessarily have room for or don’t fit the gallery on an ongoing basis,” she said, adding she has a painter who creates wearable fibre art, for instance.
“To us it’s really exciting because it gives us a chance to showcase our artists and gives us more of a chance to bring a full range of what they do.”
Other artists will be showcased in the Bluerock Gallery for the first time at the PopUp Markets, said Gimbel.
“How exciting is it going to be to have this artist in the galley where we don’t really carry their art,” she said.
The PopUp Markets began last week, featuring a dozen artists including landscape painter Darrell Ward of Black Diamond.
Ward, a former commercial artist at the Calgary Science Centre and Planetarium for 32 years, said he moved to Black Diamond a year ago to be closer to his favourite subject – the Foothills and Rocky Mountains.
“I have thrown myself into painting,” he said. “Painting has been my dream since I was eight years old.”
Ward, who considers himself an impressionist representational artist, said he’s created more than 70 paintings this year and was glad to have a place to display them to the public. He has been displaying his landscapes in Gimbel’s gallery for two weeks now.
“I go in (the Bluerock Gallery) for inspiration,” he said. “It’s quite the art community here, I’m finding.”
Ward said he grew up fishing, camping and picnicking in the Kananaskis as a child, and is now in his element painting those very things that were familiar to him throughout his life.
“I paint happy paintings,” he said. “I want (viewers) to say, ‘I saw something like that,’ something that makes them happy and give them a present thought.”
Gimbel said the artists featured at the PopUp Markets will be different each day.
“They are going to have a table full of their own work and people will interact with them like they would at a market,” she said. “The artists have a market of their own within the gallery. We are aiming for the kind of market where people will come and find affordable handmade potential gift items.”
With the tough economic times for merchants and artists alike, Gimbel sees the PopUp Markets as a collaboration.
“We are all working to create as much buoyancy as we can during these times,” she said. “Artists are in the same boat we are in. We are working together to create more enticement for people to come and see more work and buy local. I’m thrilled to be giving them a table in the gallery and to include them because I’m a fan of their work. It hopefully will help everyone survive the winter.”
Jacquelyn Blight will showcase her encaustics, batiks and silk paintings during Light Up Black Diamond on Dec. 3.
“It’s been fabulous that she’s asked me to join,” said the Black Diamond artist. “The more people that know about what I do the more exposure that brings to me.”
Blight has been a recognized artist in the area since the 1990s, and at one time had her own shop and taught folk art.
She learned the ancient art batik in Indonesia, which involves laying dye and wax, and has since delved into encaustic art with a focus on photography and coloured wax.
“I’m just gathering momentum again,” she said.
For more details about the PopUp Markets at Bluerock Gallery go to http://bluerockgallery.ca/blogs/events/popup-markets-at-bluerock-gallery
