Eastern Manitoba artists welcoming visitors this weekend

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This article was published 18/08/2022 (1493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With its varieties of insects, animals and centuries-old pine trees, Manitoba’s boreal forest is never short of artistic inspiration. This weekend, city-dwellers and rural folk alike will be invited to abodes of artists who practise their craft in the region.

On Saturday and Sunday, the Boreal Shores Art Tour opens its gallery and studio doors to visitors across Eastern Manitoba. The tour promises a more intimate art experience than your typical gallery showing by letting viewers converse with the artists in-person — and, sometimes, in their homes.

Louise Kress, a participating artist and organizer, says there will be 38 artists along 22 different stops. The committee has divided the tour into three different groups to make it easy for visitors to plan their trip.

“What we suggest people do is take a look at the brochure and mark the artists that you want to go and see,” Kress says. “If you don’t make it to their place, you can always get a hold of them and make an appointment to go out and see them another time.”

Kress is a graphic artist by trade with a passion for wood carving. The weekend, she’s welcoming visitors Into the Woods — that is, into her Beaconia home studio.

Several years ago, Kress picked up the craft after being approached by a woodcarver at a market who lent her and a knife and spare wood.

“I tried it and it was like a bug bit me,” Kress says. “For seven years, I’ve been carving my heart out and I just love it.”

While many artists are full-time residents in the region, others live there seasonally, turning their summer cottages into studios. With most artistic opportunities taking place within city limits, the tour helps spotlight rural artists, like Hadashvile-based Janine Bergamot.

“There are a lot of people who have an interest in art and craft, but it is a very solo endeavour,” Bergamot says. “These types of activities allow artists to meet each other or learn that there are other artists in their area.”

Some artists have chosen to open up their home studios to visitors, while others are hosting group exhibitions. First-time participant Karly Owens will display her landscape and pet portraits at the WB Lewis Business Centre in Pinawa.

“In Pinawa, we have three stops all in one location,” Owens says. “We have so many phenomenal artists rurally, so just getting our names out there and being seen is great.”

This will be the third time painter Jane Gateson and her husband Roger participate in the tour from their seasonal home in Victoria Beach.

Gateson’s parents purchased the cottage she currently resides in when she was 11 years old. As she grew older, she witnessed the region change with the times. She’s noticed some animals that once roamed along the beaches and in the nearby forests are no longer there.

“Climate change has caused lots of changes everywhere in the world, but I do see it here in the forest,” Gateson said. “As far as wildflowers, insects and certain animals and things I used to see as a kid, I don’t see those as much.”

Still, the natural landscape of Victoria Beach taught Gateson important lessons as a painter and a human being.

“There’s something wonderful and magical about living in this place,” Gateson said. “Something it has really taught me is just to appreciate the cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth, renewal.”

Indeed, many of the artists expressed a fondness for the boreal forest region itself and the inspiration it brings.

“Just being right on the water here on the Ironwood Trail, I can get so much inspiration and so many ideas to paint,” Owens said. “I don’t even have enough time to paint all the things I want to when I get inspired.”

As Gateson and her husband prepare their cottage for viewings, she’s most excited to converse with the strangers who knock on her studio door.

“The tour is a great opportunity to go into people’s homes or into their studios and get a sense of the person doing the art,” Gateson said. “That’s a little different than when you just go to a show or a gallery and see someone’s work. To actually get into the space where they work, or sometimes even the place they live and get a broader sense of what that artist is about and what kind of work they do and why — that’s a different opportunity.”

The Boreal Shores Art Tour runs Saturday, Aug. 20 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information and to download the map and brochure, visit borealshoresarttour.ca.

cierra.bettens@freepress.mb.ca