The gallery and museum in Okotoks are going to be a hotspot for art lovers looking for Christmas presents next week.

On Friday, the newly-renovated Okotoks Museum and Archives is hosting an opening reception for a show of paintings inspired by Alberta landscapes and created by a group of artists including one Okotoks painter. Across the parking lot at the Okotoks Art Gallery at The Station more artists will have tables brimming with artworks designed to entice Christmas shoppers.

Through the weekend the gallery will be filled with tables showcasing each artist’s work, large and small for the annual Christmas Art Sale. Artworks will include jewelry, paintings and other media.

The Christmas sale runs for three days and kicks off on Friday (Dec. 4) evening from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m., then continues on Saturday, Dec. 5 and Sunday, Dec. 6 from noon until 5 p.m.

There is more time to peruse at the art show next door, however, and mull over a purchase of a new painting. A group of six women, called the Chillax Art Group, is putting on an exhibition of paintings at the museum until Dec. 20.

Chillax Art Group members, from left to right, Judy Keeler, Sue Bussoli, Lillian Munz and Betty Sorenson are pleased to be showing their paintings, inspired by Alberta's landscapes, at the newly renovated Okotoks Museum and Archives in the Heritage House. The opening reception is on Dec. 4, which coincides with the first day of the three-day Christmas Art Sale across the parking lot at the Okotoks Art Gallery at the Station. photo by Tamara Neely

The women chose a theme High Plains Paintbox for the show and used it to kick-start a new set of paintings this year.  The show features upwards of 50 paintings in watercolours, acrylics and oils by Calgarians Susan Bussoli, Vera Graham, Catherine McLay, Lillian Munz and Elizabeth Sorenson and Okotokian Judy Keeler.

Keeler will be bouncing between the opening at the museum, which has three oil paintings in the High Plains Paintbox exhibition, and her table at the gallery in The Station.

Two of her paintings at the museum are of an abandoned car and a homestead. The character of the rust of the abandoned car and the weathered wood attracted Keeler to the sight as she drove through the countryside on a camping trip.

The paintings can be hung on their own, Keeler said, but they also complement each other.

“The vehicle was so wonderful — the colours and the rust. An old relic. And the homestead was quite fitting, too — a prairie scene,” said Keeler.

The car, which would be from the 1930s, and the old homestead appealed to her because of the history they represent, in addition to the aesthetic of their colours against the muted tones of the prairie.

“You see abandoned barns and homesteads all over the prairies. You drive to Edmonton and it doesn’t matter what road you take, you’ll see them,” said Keeler.

Keeler’s third painting in the show is a scene inspired by the view outside her Air Ranch home.

“It’s a harvest scene, with silos in the distance and the typical, low-lying water and plains. With plains, it’s all about colour and line — the intersection of hills and mountains in the distance, the freshly cut fields. It’s just beautiful.”

The five other members of Chillax Art Group created paintings of figures, florals and landscapes, all inspired by the theme.

The High Plains Paintbox exhibit runs Dec. 1 to 20 at the Okotoks Museum and Archives, with the opening reception taking place on Dec. 4 from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m.

tneely@okotoks.greatwest.ca

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