Foothills artists have put their unique spin on the Okotoks Art Gallery’s train exhibit, whether inspired by a fondness for the Canadian icon or having taken one across the country as a new resident.
Annette Petrovich, an acrylic painter in Okotoks, has a fondness for trains that goes back to when she was three years old and her family immigrated to Canada from Germany.
“We took a train from Halifax across Canada to Alberta and got off the train in Lethbridge,” she said.
When Petrovich was a little older her father got a job with the railway and the family was given free passes to use the Dayliner passenger service. It was a treat for her family, she said.
“We traveled to Calgary a few times and got to see the zoo,” she said. “My dad worked at Seven Persons near Medicine Hat during the summer and my mom would take us in the Dayliner Friday morning and Saturday morning dad would come home with us.”
Petrovich submitted a perspective painting featuring a train with the tracks in the foreground for the exhibition.
“I’m one of these people that likes to be creative,” she said. “I didn’t just want to paint a train. My idea was to try something a little bit different.”
The Okotoks Art Gallery invited its members to submit paintings, drawings, photographs and other media featuring trains for its From Cow-Catcher to Caboose – Reflections on the Railway exhibit on display in the small gallery June 10 to Sept. 2. An artists reception takes place June 9 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Elvira Glanville, another Okotoks acrylic painter, submitted two paintings.
The first is of a train in the snow called Break Through and the other features a train in the mist called Early Morning Traveler.
“It shows our early morning sunrise with evergreens in the background and some of the mist that you often see early in the morning when you’re traveling through the country,” she said. “I was trying to find a good concept to demonstrate train travel in Canada and support the 150 celebration that’s going on this year. I really wanted to demonstrate the Canadian environment and how I see our country.”
Calgary photographer Tim Johnston submitted three photographs he took of a steam locomotive at the Canadian Pacific Railway depot track in Calgary.
“It was operational until a few yeas ago,” he said. “I captured the pistons, driving rods and wheels. I have three pieces in the show that illustrate parts of the drivetrain.”
Johnston said he’s always enjoyed photographing railroads and trains, and the steam engine was a rare pleasure to see.
“I was just driving home one day and there it was in all its steaming glory,” he said. “It’s quite marvelous.”
Johnston learned to be a photographer in his younger years and it has been a hobby ever since.
“I do a lot of landscapes – some wildlife, just whatever comes before the camera,” he said. “I like to do little road trips and photograph remains of little villages around Calgary. I go into the hills southwest of Calgary to the prairies around Carseland.”
Katrina Lougheed, gallery specialist, said the exhibit is a great way to showcase the gallery’s members while celebrating an instrumental part of Canada’s past for its 150th anniversary of confederation.
“The railway was instrumental in building and settling in Canada and the Town of Okotoks owes much of its existence to the presence of the railway,” she said. “The Okotoks Art Gallery is in an old train station so it really seemed relevant to ask our members to create railway-themed art connecting the past with the present.”
Lougheed said she’s impressed with what members brought into the gallery.
“We were blown away with the ones that came in so far,” she said. “We’ve got some paintings, we’ve got some photography, there is stained glass, we’ve even got a hardanger piece.”
On June 10 at 2 p.m., the Okotoks Art Gallery will unveil Okotoks’ Canada 150 Mosaic Mural, which is a collection of four-by-four inch tiles painted by local residents to create a train car. The Town is one of 150 municipalities to participate in the Canada-wide event to create a train 150 cars long. It will also be on display in the gallery until Sept. 2.
