Don’t miss out on the Gwen Fox Gallery’s All Members Show this month

Thirty-four artists team up to create beautiful show highlighting local art

It’s one of the best times of the year to be an art lover in our area, as this month is the Gwen Fox Gallery’s All Members Show. 

The All Members Shows at the Gwen Fox Gallery highlights the best of our region’s artists. Any member of the gallery is welcome to take part in this multi-artist show, which means the gallery is filled with all types of art for visitors to enjoy. 

“There’s all different kinds of artwork. There’s watercolour, there’s acrylic, there’s oil, we have Indigenous art this month, photography, and we even have an instant coffee piece,” said Brenda Hedberg, Volunteer Coordinator for the Gwen Fox Gallery. 

She hopes that residents will come by anytime this month, but wants to highlight the show’s reception as many of the artists will be there on that day. The reception is on April 11 from 1 to 3 p.m.

“Stop by if you want to see all kinds of varieties of art and different styles, different everything. Come and see,” she said.

The Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. and late on Thursdays to 8 p.m.

The Selkirk Record couldn’t interview all  34 artists in the show, but below are three participating artists.

Darrell Bear Sr.

Bear has brought two pieces to the gallery’s April show, Aurora Thunderbird Woman and Beauty of the Humming Gems. 

“I would describe (my art) as beauty in motion. I’d also describe it as storytelling because a lot of the art that I do now that I’ve gotten into it and I love it, is that, it’s stories,” said Bear.

He explained that his journey into creating art has come along with his journey to sobriety, as well as his mental health journey. 

“The person that most helped me get into it was my daughter. She is a beautiful artist and very talented. I always did black and white pencil drawings on paper, right? And that’s all I did. (It) was just what my art was, black and white, just drawing. And one day, she took one of my drawings and painted it on the canvas, and she brought this colour. The colours that she used, she gave life to my little rough draft of a drawing. And then asked her and said I’ll try it out. She kind of pushed me into getting into it, and it’s something that I enjoy doing now,” said Bear.

He explained that he finds the creation of art to be very therapeutic.

“Living in chaos while I was suffering with mental health issues and addiction, my life was so chaotic and so dark. Now, when I paint, it’s like I got life. I got life of me, as you can tell, from the colours, and it’s one thing I’m very blessed and grateful for,” he said.

Bear said that his work is inspired by his three children as well as the stories that people have entrusted to him along the way.

“The main thing I would say (is my inspiration) would be my recovery, my children. They love when I do a nice little piece, and they see me doing something constructive. And, what inspires me the most too, is the people I meet along this path that I’m taking while I pursue my art,” he said.

One of the two pieces that he’s brought to the gallery this month is Aurora Thunderbird Woman, inspired by his family and the story of Thunderbird Woman.

“(Aurora Thunderbird Woman) is inspired by my daughter. She is such a young, strong, beautiful woman. She’s graduating this year from the Selkirk Comp. And I painted that one because she got me into pursuing my art. She got me loving the art and seeing colour again. So there’s my daughter, and then the way I painted, it was a Thunderbird, and then you can see two other birds on the wings of it. She has two brothers, and she’s the one that’s holding those two brothers, watching over them. She’s always looking out for all the family members,” said Bear.

The other piece from Bear this month is Beauty of the Humming Gems, which one of his sons helped him name.

“The story with that one, with me personally, is that, you know how a hummingbird has to always fly and flap its wings, to live, to survive, to keep going. So, the story behind that one is like I always have to flap my wings, keep going, to keep living, to keep surviving,” he said.

Bear said that he painted the second piece with his hands to add energy to the piece and chose the colours to represent the elements and aspects of his life now. Purple represents healing, blue is gaining his life again, green is growth, and the yellow and orange are the fire that’s burning inside him.

Bear wanted to be part of the Gwen Fox Gallery after learning about the supportive artist community when he lived in Selkirk. 

He’s a recent addition to the gallery’s members.

His advice for people taking their first steps on their artist journey as an adult is to share your gift.

“If you’re going to paint, draw or do whatever art that you do or whether it be a craft, it’s a gift that you are blessed with. Share it with the world, share it with your friends, share it with your family, because if you have a gift of art, that is a gift that God or Creator has given us, and art is very therapeutic. Art is very healing,” said Bear.

He encourages residents to check out the Gwen Fox Gallery’s show this month. 

“Stop in, take a look around, because you never know. Your eyes might be drawn to a certain piece that will make you feel something, like a good memory that you probably forgot, or a feeling that you had when you were a child. That’s what my pieces give me. They give me a feeling. They’ll make me remember something (from) when I was a child. Stop in. Take a look, then take something from it. Just really look at the artwork,” said Bear. 

If you’d like to keep up with Bear, you can check out his social media online at Mooshum Mukwa Arts on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. 

Lucy Kowalchuk 

Kowalchuk has brought her graphic, joyful style to the gallery with her two pieces, Contemplating Farmer and Sunday Afternoon.

“I like my art to tell a story. I like it to have something living in it, either a person or bird or an animal of some sort,” said Kowalchuk.

She explained that her work is very detail-oriented but that she’d like to try painting in a looser style in the future. 

This attention to detail likely comes from her work as a graphic designer for the Selkirk Record, where she regularly brings her creativity to advertisements for local businesses. 

Kowalchuk says that she’s inspired by creating work that makes people think, but she also strives to create work that puts people into her paintings.

The first piece that she brought to the gallery this month is Contemplating Farmer.

“I just started painting in the wintertime. I haven’t been outside to (find inspiration), but I’ve got hundreds of old National Geographics in my basement. And so, I flipped through them for inspiration and ideas. The farmer was actually an old man. He was sitting in the back of a truck, and I liked the way his hands were intertwined. And so, I took that, and I thought, well, I want to put him on something more interesting. So, being a farm girl, I thought, I’ll put him on a bale of hay, and then the background just grew around that,” she said.

Kowalchuk’s second piece is Sunday Afternoon and definitely embodies the feeling of relaxing in a peaceful place with nothing pressing to do.

“For Sunday afternoon, it was the same thing. I saw a picture in National Geographic of these two girls sitting on the grass, and I took the swans from a different picture I found, and I added to them, and I just thought it was kind of peaceful,” she said.

Kowalchuk turned her art into a profession when she went to Red River College for Art Advertising in her twenties, but she had a passion for art well before then.

“My mom’s cookbooks have circles with dots all over them. She asked me, ‘What are these?’ I was about four years old, and I said, ‘They’re babies.’ So, I started drawing babies when I was four or five years old. In fact, (my) mom’s old treadle machine, I actually scraped at the back. I still have the old sewing machine where I scraped the babies into the back of it,” she said.

As for painting, Kowalchuk had done some in the past, but with the unfortunate death of some of her former classmates, she came to the realization that the laundry and dishes can wait or be done by someone else, but only she can make time to do her art. 

“I just got myself some new canvases, found my old oil paints, they were in a box. They were all dried up, and I had to stick them in boiling water to open the caps. Then I just started painting,” she said.

As for joining the Gwen Fox Gallery, Kowalchuk said she was aware of how the volunteers work hard to bring the artist community in the area together, as Record reporters regularly cover their monthly shows in the paper. Thanks to some encouragement from Hedberg, she took the plunge to participate in this month’s show. 

Her advice to artists like herself who might be coming back to a new medium after some time away is to just go for it.

“If it’s been on your mind for a long time, like mine was, just do it. Get it off your mind. Free your mind by actually doing it, so it’s not a weight on your shoulders, always thinking, ‘Oh, I want to do this.’ If you actually (pick up a paintbrush) you’ll feel lighter because it’s something you can cross off your list,” said Kowalchuk.

She hopes that residents stop by the art gallery this month. 

“There’s something for everybody, whatever their interests are,” said Kowalchuk.

Autumn Robbie-Draward

Robbie-Draward is a long-time Gwen Fox Gallery artist who has brought her paintings Hear Me Roar and Along the Prairie Marsh to the gallery this month. 

“I do different subject matter, flowers, pet portraits, landscapes and abstract work. And, I work primarily in watercolour, but I also do acrylic and mixed media. And also, I’m doing some writing too. So, I sort of have this eclectic mix of what type of things inspire me,” said Robbie-Draward.

Her first piece at the gallery this month is Hear Me Roar.

“It was made through experimentation and looking at colour, and also using a bit of stencil work in there. The name is because it looks like a dragon, and it also kind of looks like a peacock. I was actually going more for the peacock, and then all of a sudden, because I was experimenting, I had no idea about what the outcome would be or no feeling that I would be creating a masterpiece. I just had this, like, feeling that whatever happens, I’m just going to let it happen. And so, when I stepped back, I saw that little dragon head, and then I started to pull that out,” she explained.

Her second piece is called Along the Prairie Marsh and is part of a series.

“It’s a landscape scene, not abstract, but not really realistic, and that too was from the experimenting (with) colour and using a technique on there that just ended up being kind of (a) magical placement for me.”

Her art is overall inspired by her property, which is on the Brokenhead River. 

“Everything was overgrown (when we moved there), which looked really cool and everything, but we’ve sort of made it more of almost a park-like setting. There are still wild pieces to it, like our coulees are still very much unmanaged. It’s got interesting things. There’s a trestle (bridge) across the river. The Pacific Rail it’s their trestle, and it’s still in use. It’s a main line, actually, so there’s sort of interesting things happening along there. Right now, that is the focus of the series I’m doing. And, I also love to paint pet portraits, and so if somebody wants me to do one, I’m always (saying yes),” said Robbie-Draward.

Having been an artist in the gallery for over 20 years, she says there’s a lot to love about being a member. 

“We have very diverse work that we do, and the gallery is very supportive of making sure that everybody is included and that they have these opportunities to show their work, either at an All Members Show or in a show with fewer members, but you have an opportunity to show more of your work,” she said.

Robbie-Draward explained that art has always been a part of her life. From art classes at school as a child to sewing, photography, and then taking classes as an adult. Recently, she’s even started sharing her knowledge as a watercolour art teacher. 

As a teacher, her best advice to her students is to learn to have fun learning.

“Don’t be really attached to the end product. Be attached to the process. Think more about the process and not really like ‘I’m gonna create this masterpiece,’ because you won’t in the beginning. You may one day, which would really be awesome, but just enjoy the process, because creativity will come out. I’ve seen it for myself when I’m not so much attached to the end product, I end up doing my best work,” she said.

Robbie-Draward hopes to see residents stop by the gallery this month and also welcomes residents to check out the Beauhead Arts Fest, which she will be a part of in Beausejour this August.

“This gallery is amazing. You’ll actually be surprised at the very variety of work. And not everything’s going to appeal to you, but you will find something that will catch your eye,” she said.

You can keep up with Robbie-Draward online at www.instagram.com/autumncreativeworks on Instagram and www.facebook.com/autumnrobbiedrawardart on Facebook.