Artist captures athletes’
colourful personalities

Olympic speed skater Gaetan Boucher poses with the portrait of himself by Turner Valley artist Gordon Milne. Milne’s collection of nine Canadian athletes is currently on exhibit in Calgary. photo by Joan Hall

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

As I wait for Gaetan Boucher to finish signing an autograph, I feel privileged that in just a couple of seconds I will have the full attention of a four-time Olympic medalist, including two gold.
A charming champion, Boucher has been discussing the unusual union of art and sports. The occasion is the reception for an art exhibit on Jan. 16 featuring vibrant portraits of nine of Canada’s premier athletes, including Boucher, painted by Turner Valley artist Gordon Milne.
Boucher, a renowned speed skater, explained that he receives all kinds of requests, but this project caught his attention.
“(Milne) was so funny and so nice,” said Boucher. “Why would you refuse someone who wants to immortalize you?
“I work in research and development, and to meet a real painter, it was nice. And the designers all wanted to come over and meet this guy too.”
The Artists of the World Gallery in Calgary is buzzing with excitement and brimming with excellence; many of the athletes portrayed in the paintings are here this evening, along with friends, fans and sport/art enthusiasts.
The athletes are called, one by one to the front of the room, their accomplishments announced to the energetic crowd: Olympic gold medal swimmer Alex Baumann; skier Nancy Greene Raine, who was named Canada’s female athlete of the century in 1999; pentathlete Diane Jones Konihowski, who was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1978 and inducted into Canada’s Olympic Sports Hall of Fame in 1996; three-time Olympian Michael Smith; and Boucher, who was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1983 in recognition of his excellence in speed skating.
Other gold medallists who attended the event included Duff Gibson, who won gold in skeleton at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, and Kyle Shewfelt, who won gold in gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Next it is the artist’s turn to take the spotlight. The production of these intriguing portraits of internationally respected athletes is an accomplishment. The reception is an exciting moment for an artist who plugs away at his passion in solitude. He reveled in the moment.
“I spend most of my time six inches away from a painting muttering to myself,” said Milne, addressing the crowd. “Not only has the Canadian Sports Centre recognized the tremendous contribution the athletes have made, but they’ve also made it possible for me, one artist, to stand in front of you and say, ‘Look what I’ve done.’”
Milne is a friendly, personable fellow with sparkling eyes. Like the athletes here this evening, speaking with Milne is stop-and-start as his own fans ask him for his autograph.
This project started 10 years ago with Milne’s idea to paint some of the people for whom he has immense respect.
“I decided I’d take my career as an artist seriously and if I was going to paint, I wanted to paint people - and people who I had a huge respect for. (These athletes) are people I grew up watching on TV. And I started to realize that people were beginning to forget. I’d mention heroes and people were blank; and to me they were Canadian icons,” said Milne.
Milne explained that instead of going the traditional route of creating a body of work and turning it over to a gallery, he wanted to work on a project he liked and wanted to find somebody who liked it and supported it. This goal led to a partnership with the Canadian Sport Centre (CSC) and ARC Resources.
The Canadian Sport Centre in Calgary elected to commission the series and ARC Resources stepped up to finance it.
Milne is grateful a company like ARC Resources has shown commitment to supporting athletes and he appreciates their support of this project.
“As an individual artist that’s a very, very rare thing to have this kind of support from the corporate world.”
With those players on board. Milne’s talent as a painter and his passion for sport drew the athletes’ interest to the project. Soon the collection became a reality.
“We wanted to do athletes who were legendary in Canadian sport,” said Milne. “As Canadians these are athletes we should be extremely proud of. They’re among the elite athletes of the world.”
The resulting portraits have the kind of depth where you can lose yourself in colour, shape and the emotion. The portraits are likely to appeal to sports enthusiasts who normally don’t get excited about art, and to art enthusiasts who don’t normally pay much attention to sports. This is because the portraits have two main strengths: they capture the athletes’ likeness and they are aesthetically interesting.
The portraits exude personality simply through facial expressions – there are no skates or skis, no boxing ring, no props.
For each portrait Milne met with the athlete, spent time with them, and sketched preliminary drawings. He worked from his experience with them rather than from photos.
“When I go to draw these athletes I get an opportunity to talk with them, and that’s even more important than the drawings,” said Milne. “That helps me choose the colours I choose – it’s a feeling I want to achieve as opposed to an actual likeness.”
When asked about what she thought of her portrait, Nancy Greene Raine’s answer was evidence of Milne achieving this goal.
“It’s a really creative interpretation of my personality,” she said. “I think what he was trying to do is show the drive and the passion that I had for my sport, that got me to the top,” she said.
Turning her attention to the portrait of Boucher, an athlete Greene Raine knows personally she said, “I think it’s a nice illustration of his warmth, his intelligence – it shows through. If you thought Gaetan was a serious person, when you look at the picture you’d think he has a real humourous side to him.”
Milne’s skill as a painter can be seen in his ability to capture a physical likeness and the feeling of personality simply through geometric shapes shaded with colours that, one wouldn’t think to use to for a face. Colours like purple, green, blue and red. But it works.
Michael Smith was also impressed with the Milne’s creative use of colour. Smith, who has twice won the gold medal in the decathlon at the Commonwealth Games, was also one of the athletes chosen to be painted for this exhibition.
“That just shows his skill as an artist. They’re so subtle you see the person before you see the colours,” said Smith.
Smith reflected on the long road Milne has taken to achieve this success.
“I sat in (Milne’s) studio in Turner Valley, in a relaxed atmosphere, and here we are at a corporate event. That was almost a decade ago,” he said, and added, “Anything worth doing takes awhile.”
The exhibition will be open to the public until Feb.16. Milne’s goal is to complete six more portraits for a total of 15 portraits to be unveiled in 2010 in conjunction with the Olympics in Vancouver.
The Artists of the World Gallery is located at 514 - 11th Avenue SW, Calgary.

The musical comedy duo Chuck & Albert will be performing at The Station Cultural Centre in Okotoks on Thursday. photo courtesy Chuck & Albert

Duo brings good times, Acadian style

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

We don’t have much exposure to Acadian culture out here in Alberta but tomorrow night two Acadian fellows from Prince Edward Island will bring their step dancing shoes, a couple of chairs, a fiddle, perhaps a harmonica and a whole lot of energy to the performance hall of The Station in Okotoks.
They are Chuck & Albert, and their show is Acadian music peppered with physical comedy. Their relaxed, easy delivery of harmonica, spoons and fiddle playing looks like what probably spontaneously erupts at their family gatherings.
“Everything we do on stage comes from kitchen party traditions,” said Chuck Arsenault. “All the entertainment and parties were to help you forget the troubles troubling you.”
Chuck & Albert happen to both have the surname Arsenault, and though not related, it’s fitting since the two are so in-tune with each other on stage they seem like family.
They have been performing as a duo since 2004, but their history together is much longer. In the 1990s they formed an Acadian band with two other Arsenaults, called Barachois, and played a variety of instruments each, including the French horn, guitar, harmonica, sousaphone (a marching tuba), trumpet, fiddle, bass and assorted percussion. In 2000 Barachois was nominated for a Juno award in the roots and traditional category.
In 2003 Chuck & Albert turned away from the band, and a year later began creating performances that heighten audience awareness of the Acadian culture – past, present and future – in an engaging and authentic way.”
Cathy Masterson, cultural and historical services team leader with the Town of Okotoks, is a big fan.
“Oh my goodness, they’re so funny, they’re hilarious,” said Masterson.
Their Acadian roots are integral to their music and their sense of humour.
“Anyone who likes fiddle music, step dancing, likes to laugh, then the Chuck & Albert show is for you,” said Chuck.
“In the dead of winter there’s nothing better than a good Acadian party – it’s people coming together.”
Chuck & Albert’s show will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25, and may be running out so call The Station to make a reservation, (403) 938-3204. The Station is located at 53 North Railway Street, Okotoks.

Musician to bring his colourful stories to The Station

By Tamara Neely
Staff Reporter

Dave Gunning will be performing at The Station in Okotoks on Saturday. photo submitted

Dave Gunning, who has toured with the likes of Stompin’ Tom Connors and George Canyon, will be playing an intimate, acoustic show in Okotoks on Saturday.
Gunning is a singer-songwriter from Pictou County, Nova Scotia, also Canyon’s hometown. Gunning’s first trip to Okotoks was to hook up with Canyon and they have since written music together, played together in the area and toured a number of times. Gunning recently joined Canyon on his Christmas tour.
The idea to play a cozy show at The Station occurred to Gunning when he and Canyon rehearsed in the performance space.
“The idea is it’s sort of a fun show, people come and laugh at the stories,” said Gunning. “It’s not serious by any means. The stories are light, people laugh; there’s some tear jerkers.”
Gunning has recorded six original albums in that time. His most recent album, called House For Sale, was released in the fall.
In attempting to shine light on what his music is like, it was easier for Gunning to first say what it’s not.
“It’s not country, it’s not bluegrass, it’s not Celtic, it’s not really folk music,” said Gunning, “but its kind of all those things. It’s acoustic singer-songwriter story songs.”
The stories he weaves into song are about people he knows from down-home, people he’s met on the road and even people he’s never met, but have captured his imagination. One song, for example, is a story about an illegitimate son of an English king who was shipped away from England and lived and died in Pictou County.
“One of the stories is about King George IV’s illegitimate son. He was buried in Pictou, Nova Scotia,” said Gunning. “It’s kind of cool, because of that song, there was a grant given to the cemetery to restore that grave.”
Lately he has been thinking about all the scandal that colours the world of celebrities, and writing a confessional, autobiographical song about his own life.
“So many artists have these big stories of their addiction to this or that, they’re bipolar… I was thinking about writing a confession song of being normal; a coming-out song, like, My Parents Still Love Me,” he said.
Gunning’s songs are sweet and thoughtful, speaking simply about what he sees around him, including the things in life that are uncomfortable to think about, like change.
He’s a good storyteller in song and in person. A video posted on YouTube.com shows him telling an audience a story about landing a job to play stand-up bass for Stompin’ Tom Connors’ tour in 2002. One day, Stompin’ Tom just called him up. Gunning tells the story doing an accurate and very funny imitation of Stompin’ Tom’s voice, saying musician J.P. Cormier recommended him:
“J.P. Cormier from Cape Breton Island says you can play bass guitar pretty good, but what I want to know is if you can drink.’
“I said, ‘I guess so, I like to have a few beer.’
“And he said, ‘That’s good, b’y, because we’re not a bunch of preachers out in the loo.’
“And he said, ‘Listen, I want to know one more thing before you get to the gig. What I want to know is if you can handle your liquor.’
“At this time I’m thinking, what kind of job interview is this? And I said, ‘well, I guess so, I get drunk when I have too much to drink, just like anybody, but I’ll always make the gig, I promise that, and I’ll keep my head about me and stuff, and I’ll drink with you.’
“He said, ‘That’s good, b’y, because I don’t want any fallsy-downsies in my band.’
“As long as he knew I wasn’t a fallsy-downsy, I got the gig.”
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 at The Station in Okotoks.