The Wild Gala

Auction Contributors

Christine Elmgren

Christine Elmgren has been a resident of Canmore, Alberta since 2001. As an oil painter of landscapes, she is interested in capturing the feeling of being in a particular location, of portraying the pure beauty of our natural environs and expressing its emotion with a lyrical and elemental style. She paints the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, the forests of the West Coast, and the skies and structures of the Prairies. Her work is influenced by Emily Carr, Jean Paul Lemieux, and the Group of Seven, among others.

She was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing and minor in Art History from the University of Saskatchewan. Her work has appeared in exhibitions across Saskatchewan and in Canmore, and is held in private collections in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. She is a member of the Canmore Artists and Artisans' Guild.

Christine Elmgren
christine@elmgren.ca
www.elmgren.ca

---

Judith Hall

“Tracks in the Snow” was painted during a time I spent at the Columbia Icefield as an artist in residence. It was a beautiful afternoon in early spring and I had just returned from a late afternoon ski trip.

As an artist I enjoy observing my surroundings and interpreting them on canvas. I am fascinated with all aspects of my environment and see beauty and interesting patterns everywhere. My work reflects my love of the outdoors, be it the vast landscape, someone’s garden, or the plants and animals that are such an integral part of this world on which we live.

Judith E. Hall’s work can be found in private collections in Canada, U.S.A., England, New Zealand and Australia and public collections in Alberta, including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Hall’s detailed and studied style shows her strong scientific background blended with her love of her environment and the outdoors where she can be found sketching and painting.

Learn more about Judith and her work at www.judithehall.com.

Judith E. Hall is represented by Kensington Fine Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta.

---

Faith Harckham

Faith began painting as a hobby almost 20 years ago. She is a retired physiotherapist and now spends most of her time painting and enjoying the outdoor pursuits that her and her husband's home in Canmore makes possible. Her paintings have been sold through galleries in Edmonton, Calgary, Canmore and Banff. Her work has been collected by individuals and corporations in North America, Australia, Europe and Africa. Her various and colourful depictions of grizzlies are in huge demand in the Bow Valley.

In 2000, Faith and her husband trekked into a remote village in Nepal, taking lights for a school and 55 homes. Buoyed by their experience there, the Harckhams established “Luxtreks” so that other people might join them on future adventures to install lighting systems. Now children in over 300 homes and several schools in Nepal, Bolivia and Guatemala are provided with light to enable them to do their homework in the evening.

During the past 11 years Faith has provided over $35,000 from her earnings as a visual artist directly to various projects in developing countries. Faith intends to continue to contribute financially to this mutually rewarding and exciting project for the foreseeable future.

---

Byron Harmon

Byron Harmon arrived in Banff from Tacoma, Washington in 1903 as a travelling photographer. The landscape and the spirit of adventure which permeated the Rockies captivated Byron and set the stage for his life’s work. He became Banff’s first resident photographer and filmmaker, photographing until his death in 1942.

Byron Harmon embarked on his photographic career with a homemade camera and no film. He had set up a small portrait studio in Tacoma, Washington but had no money left for film. Not to be dismayed, he found himself a client and pretended to take her portrait, asking for a small deposit. Using the deposit to buy film and claiming that the original photograph was unsatisfactory, he took the woman’s portrait in earnest and never looked back.

Learn more about Byron Harmon here.

---

Ann Lemorande

Born in Wisconsin, Ann currently splits her time between Calgary, Alberta and the west coast of Vancouver Island. During her working career, including 16 years in the petroleum industry and 14 years devoted to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, her love of photography always played in the background. Both conventional film photography and the digital world hold her interest, with an absolute passion for anything natural and wild. Mother Nature, the ultimate artist, is where Ann draws her greatest inspiration.

Enjoy more of Ann’s photography at www.lemorandephoto.com.

---

Tatianna M. O'Donnell

I have lived in the mountains and in the forest. I feel at home amongst the trees. I love the shadowy interplay of the branches and leaves; the shapes and forms created by trunks and limbs. And so, it is natural for me to paint trees in their various textures and spaces. The trees in this series are painted with the branches and/or foliage above ground and the roots below or just above ground. I like to depict the roots – the way they hang on to the rocks of the mountains or twist above the soil. These are symbolic of the roots by which we are all connected to our past and to each other. My paintings make reference to the cycle of birth, death and re-birth in life; to the connections between the spiritual and the earthly, the ephemeral quality of our lives and the fragility of our environment.

I paint in oils as well as acrylics. I enjoy the fluidity, the movement and sensuousness of paint on the canvas. Most of my paintings are done ‘alla prima’ – fresh and quick. When working in acrylic, I use a Polymer medium with the paint to increase the flow and lengthen the drying time as well as to enhance gloss. In many of my trees and roots series, I use bits of canvas that has been attached with polymer medium to add depth and texture. I have also developed a layered varnishing technique using transparent colours over opaque ones, adding luminosity and interplay of tones and values. The barks of trees are textured in various ways, as are my canvases, with thick paint and at times oleopasto or gel medium.

Stanford Perrot, the former head of the Alberta College of Art wrote, “Tatianna’s work has a healthy forthrightness and immediacy of message. Its techniques set aside the usual disciplines characterizing conventional art … The collector will be excited by what Tatianna offers. I am fascinated by her eye to the future, the provocative vigour, the rugged sense of poetry in paint and her social insights.”

Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have about my process and my work.

Tatianna M. O'Donnell
46 Saltwell Road Enderby, B.C. V0E 1V3
tatianna@saltwellstudios.com
www.saltwellstudios.com

---

Return to Auction Preview