A Bragg Creek artist is tickled pink that her paintings are hanging alongside the best of the best in southern Alberta.
Two of Janet Bradish’s abstract landscapes will be on display among 84 paintings, sculptures, ceramics and prints by 60 artists in the 15th annual Leighton Art Centre’s Juried Members Show. The work will be on display until June 18.
“It was a pleasant surprise,” said Bradish, a new member of the Leighton Art Centre. “It’s one of those things that when you find out you’re pinching yourself.”
The self-taught painter has decades of experience with a paintbrush. She took a few years off to spend with family and didn’t begin painting seriously again until four years ago.
One of the pieces on display is her interpretation of the mountainscape west of Bragg Creek.
“It’s a view that I see a lot of times when I look west into the valley,” she said. “The foreground is layers of magentas and greens and yellow ochre. It has a high horizon line and the mountains are obscured by cloud.”
Prairie Fields Spring Thaw, the second of Bradish’s submissions, has geometric shapes representing farmland in springtime with summer fallow fields covered in snow, bales scattered throughout and squalls in the sky.
Having art selected for the Juried Members Show is nothing new for Blanca Botero-Fuentes.
Her paintings have been featured in the show since she joined the Leighton Art Centre more than five years ago. Her abstract painting Cosmic Reliquary was selected this year.
“It’s always good to be juried in because you are competing against your peers and there are so many really good artists in the area,” she said. “You never know how many are applying either. It’s the luck of the draw.”
Botero-Fuentes said she is grateful for the opportunity to showcase her work locally.
“The Leighton is just terrific,” she said. “I went to the (Juried Members Show) opening and I was really impressed with the turnout and the work of my peers. There’s some terrific work.”
Botero-Fuentes has been painting for 25 years, starting with oil and then moving on to acrylics. She’s recently been creating mixed media collages.
The centre’s curator Stephanie Doll said art selected for the Juried Members Show is chosen by an anonymous jury of professional artists.
“The juried show is about the best of what our artists have to show,” she said. “It’s their nicest work.”
The Leighton Art Centre has 300 members who pay a $50 membership fee to support programming at the centre and Doll said the show is a way of giving back.
“The purpose of the show is to recognize our members,” she said. “It’s a chance for them to have a show for themselves.”
This year, more than 100 submitted art for the show, said Doll. Members range from emerging high school artists to established professionals.
“Our membership is growing to include a lot of different people,” she said. “Over the past few years we’ve had a lot more exposure, so we’ve had more artists discover us.”
Doll said the May 6 opening reception was the largest opening of any exhibit at the centre this year, with more than 200 people in attendance.
“We got a lot of feedback regarding the quality of art,” she said. “We’ve got some really strong pieces. I feel like the quality gets better every year. I’ve been here about five years and I feel like artists are giving us their absolute best work. Sometimes they exhibit in other places and we don’t always get them first. We are taking priority more, which is great.”
Other Foothills artists with work featured in the Juried Members Show include potter David Barnes of Okotoks, painter Annette Resler of Okotoks, painter Deanna Lavoie of Longview and photographer Edith VanderKloot of Millarville.
The Leighton Art Centre is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Starting May 30 the centre is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.
