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Exhibitions 2010
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We are please to announce their sponsorship of Tom Willock – The Desert, The Mountain, and The Sky Continued, a feature of large format black & white photographs at the Lebel Mansion Gallery in Pincher Creek, Alberta. Tom’s large format photography integrates the ageless discipline of the legendary photographers such ...as Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, Ruth Bernhard, and Robert Bourdeau. With a command of the exacting standards of the zone system and with over 40 years of experience as a photographer and in the darkroom Tom’s commitment to communicating through his chosen medium of photography in apparent.
The exhibition is on view at the Lebel Mansion Gallery in Pincher Creek, through to August 25, 2010.

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Saturday, August 7
Willock & Sax Gallery – Artist’s Demonstrations, Meet and Greet

1- 4 PM, artists and author in attendance
Visit the Gallery to watch a demonstration by painter R. Fern Langemann, have author Robert Sandford sign your copy of Ecology and Wonder: The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site, meet printmaker D. Helen Mackie and Maureen Enns and her Assiniboine Grizzlies. Ask questions and enjoy the exhibition of historical works of the Rocky Mountain Parks. Refreshments served.

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September 17 - 26 |
RCA Invitational

This exhibition of works by Royal Canadian Academy (RCA) members showcases Canadian artists recognized by their peers for their exceptional contributions to the national arts scene. Featured artists include; Douglas Haynes, D. Helen Mackie, John Chalke, and Robert Sinclair. An exhibition of historical works by past RCA artists will also be on display.
Reception: Saturday, September 18, 2 to 5 pm, artists in attendance

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November 19 - 25
Amy Loewan - New Work

Continuing her promotion of peace, Amy Loewan will present and talk about her new works.
Reception, Saturday, November 20, 2 to 5 pm, artist in attendance
Artist Talk TBA

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Past Exhibitions
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June 17 -23
Featuring Maureen Enns – Assiniboine Grizzlies

Canadian visual artist Maureen Enns has worked with misunderstood large animals on several continents. Her recent series concentrates on Grizzlies of the Assiniboine area of Banff National Park. The Willock & Sax Gallery is pleased to feature new work by this dynamic artist in conjunction with the opening of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies summer exhibition Grizzlies, where several works from her Grizzly Kingdom Series are showcased.
June 17 to 23
Gallery Social, Sunday, June 20, 11 am to 1 pm, artist in attendance

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June 10-16
Jean Sheppard - Prairies to Peaks: Landscapes of Southwestern Alberta

“The land has always had a powerful grip on Canadians. It defines us and shapes us and has affected our history, our politics, our people and our artists. But, although the landscape is important to Canadians we often don’t treat it well. We sometimes regard it as an enemy to be overcome and often destroy beauty out of ignorance or for financial gain.” Jean Sheppard’s response is to paint it while it lasts, using the rich and varied landscape of southwestern Alberta, where she lives, as her inspiration. Mountains, prairies and foothills, rivers and streams and lakes, grasslands and flowers, croplands and forests are all available to her. The artist’s love of colour is evident and often drives her to capture its effect on paper. The soft pastels that she works with provide her with the deep rich colours she feels the landscapes and flowers require.
June 10 to 16
Reception, Saturday, June 12, 2-5 pm, artist in attendance

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May 20 - 26

“An amazing thing happens when you step into a river; you become instantly aware of where you are in the world. It is this moment, that first step into a river with fly rod in hand, from which I drew the inspiration for As The Crow Flows.” The Willock & Sax Gallery is pleased to showcase new fine art and functional ceramic works by Bradley Keys.
Keys is the ceramic technician at the Alberta College of Art & Design, where he also teaches. He maintains an active pottery studio and has distinguished himself by developing a popular and whimsical line of ceramic work that explores and interprets the atmosphere of Alberta. In As The Crow Flows, he extends his interests as an avid fly fisher into his ceramic work. His work encompasses not only the landscape but also the waters and their creatures of Alberta’s mountains and prairies.
Dates: May 20 – 26
Reception, Saturday, May 22, 2-5 pm, artist in attendance
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May 2010 |

Book Signing and Readings by Myrna Kostash and Michael Murtha.
May 8, 2010
Banff, Alberta – The Willock & Sax Gallery is please to present two (2) of the five (5) finalists in the Alberta Reader’s Choice Award – award-winning non-fiction author Myrna Kostash and editor Michael Murtha. Both publications connect us with our collective past, when we learn and read about that history we enrich our understanding of our community and enhance our knowledge moving into the future. The readings and book signings are taking place at the Willock & Sax Gallery in Banff, May 8, 2 to 4 pm. Readings begin at 2:30 pm.
The Frog Lake Reader, written by non-fiction author Myrna Kostash and published by NeWest Press, merges the past and the present to offer a panoramic perspective on the tragic events surrounding the Frog Lake Massacre of 1885. By bringing together eyewitness accounts and journal excerpts, memoirs and contemporary fiction, and excerpts from interviews with historians, Kostash sheds new light on a tragedy often overshadowed by Louis Riel’s rebellion during the same year. She states, “I didn’t so much write it as compose it, arranging in a dramatic narrative all the different – and contradictory – voices that have told the story from eye-witnesses to today’s poets and fiction writers.”
Myrna Kostash is the author of nine books, including All of Baba’s Children, The Doomed Bridegroom: A Memoir, Reading the River, Bloodlines, and The Next Canada. In addition to contributing articles to various magazines, such as Geist, Canadian Geographic, and Legacy, Kostash has written radio documentaries and theatre playscripts. Her creative non-fiction has appeared in numerous Canadian and international anthologies, such as The Thinking Heart: Best Canadian Essays, Edmonton on Location, Literatura na S´wiecie (Warsaw), and Mostovi ( Belgrade). A founder of the Creative Nonfiction Collective, Kostash has taught creative writing workshops across Canada and in the US, including The Banff Centre. She has served on several award juries, including those of the Governor General’s Awards, the CBC Creative Nonfiction competition, and the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize. In 2008 the Writers Guild of Alberta presented her with the Golden Pen Award for lifetime achievement, and in 2009 she was inducted into the City of Edmonton’s Arts and Culture Hall of Fame.
Michael Murtha is the co-editor of The Forgotten Explorer. Published by Rocky Mountain Books, this journal of Samuel Prescott Fay of his 1914 expedition has never before been published. Fay kept a detailed journal (currently held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.) which detailed his day-to-day observations, struggles and concerns from Jasper. After a treacherous, slogging journey of 1,200 kilometres through wild, uncharted country they reached their destination with the outfit completely intact. The book represents aspects of western Canadian history in its infancy. It puts into perspective our incredible development over the past century and illustrating how remote, barren and wild this now urban and contemporary landscape once was. The journal is brought together with maps, photographs and wildlife records.
Mike Murtha has worked for both Parks Canada and BC Parks. He is currently the planner for Banff National Park.
The Alberta Reader’s Choice Award (ARC) is an annual award for adult fiction and narrative non-fiction titles. The recipient of the award will be announced at the 2010 Alberta Book Publishing Awards Gala event in Edmonton (May 14) – the award is worth $10,000. The Alberta Readers' Choice Award is sponsored by the Edmonton Public Library (EPL), with the EPL and the Book Publishers Association of Alberta (BPAA) partnering to organize and facilitate the award.
Join us at the Book Signings / Readings on Saturday, May 8 from 2-4 pm.
Come, listen, and talk about these two wonderful and interesting books. Readings by the authors begin at 2:30 pm.
Myrna Kostash, The Frog Lake Reader, softcover, $26.95 CDN
Mike Murtha, The Forgotten Explorer, softcover, $29.95 and / or limited edition (300) slipcased hardcover $79.99

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April 2010 |
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It all started
.Many years ago
From the window
A road went by our farm and
I followed it…
Through
And
In truth
I “followed my bliss”
Drawing and painting and such
And
In recent years
Watercolouring
And in truth
Just “following the water.”
April 8 - 14
Reception, Saturday, April 10, 2 to 5 pm
Related Events
Robert Sinclair Workshop - April 6 to 11
Robert Sinclair Retrospective at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (April 10 to June 13)

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February 2010 |
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Orange Salt Pond, Bird by Bill Peters, archival pigment photograph
Water is the focus of both a photographic exhibition and a book signing/talk at our gallery during Exposure. Bill Peters explores the abstractive power of new photographic techniques to appreciate and interpret water, and the water-land interface, an interface particularly striking in the shallow estuary at the south end of San Francisco Bay. Robert Sandford’s book Restoring the Flow Confronting the World’s Water Woes is passionately conceived, clearly written and is an approachable yet authoritative source to help us put our water-management house in order.
February 4 - 10
Reception: Saturday, February 6, 2 to 4 pm
Artist and Author talks start at 2:30 pm


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November 2009 |

November 12 to 18
Reception, Saturday, November 14, 2 to 4 pm, artist in attendance.
A solo exhibition by an expressive and innovative ceramic artist, who explores the aesthetic as well as technical elements of clay. This new body of work offers up pieces that will amuse, inspire and educate.

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October 18, 2009 |
Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of the Famous 5
with Barbara Paterson – Have Breakfast in the Gallery.
Reception, Sunday, October 18, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, artist in attendance.

Come and have a cup of tea and champagne to toast the tenacity of five women – Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Edwards, Irene Parlby – on the 80th Anniversary of The Persons Case (October 18, 1929). This landmark change to Canadian constitutional law not only recognized that legally women were ‘persons,’ but also introduced far-reaching implications for Canadian law. You are invited to join us along with Barbara Paterson, the sculptor of the Famous 5 monuments on Parliament Hill, Ottawa and in Olympic Square, Calgary. For Barbara the persistence and sense of responsibility of the Famous 5 inspired her to look at them not as an event but as a group of individuals who came together to orchestrate meaningful change.
We will also showcase a number of new works by Barbara Paterson.

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Changing Light: The Mountains of Banff
September 17 to 23
Reception, Saturday, September 19, 2 to 4 pm, Artist in Attendance.
Nature's spontaneous and sometimes-fragile existence is an underlying theme in Yuriko Kitamura’s work. “I want to capture the timeless serenity, the power and endurance of rugged mountains, the delicacy of a flower or the essence of the human figure.” Yuriko pioneered the technique of dye painting on rice paper, although she is known for developing this studio technique, her primary work is done on location in watercolor and pencil sketches. Despite the physical and visual demands, for Yuriko nothing can replace the sense of wholeness nature provides – the smell, sound and tranquility. She takes every opportunity to work in the mountains, this exhibition is based on several such trips.
We are pleased to present this wonderful exhibition during Alberta Arts Days (September 18-20)

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| August 2009

August 8th
1 to 4 pm
Help Banff come alive with the arts, join us at the Gallery for Artist Demonstrations – including stone sculptor Dennis Surrendi and wood-turner Roger Olson. Also present R. Fern Langemann, Bill Peters, and Tom Willock. This is an opportunity to watch some of our gallery artists work, to ask them questions, and see their new pieces in the gallery.
Refreshments served.
with Banff Open Doors on Sunday August 9th

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June 2009
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Landscapes and Icons
June 25 to July 1
Reception, Saturday, June 27, 2 to 4 pm,
Artist in Attendance
Aaron Paquette is one of Canada’s most dynamic First Nation’s artists. He takes us to places of magic, where sites and symbols speak to us of meanings that venture into our dreams. This exhibition of new work will not fail to excite your imagination and offer new ways of thinking.

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The Shape I'm In
June 4 to 10
Reception, Saturday, June 6, 2 to 4 pm,
Artist in Attendance
John Chalke is one of Canada's most recognized ceramic artists, with many awards and accolades, including the Governor General's Award for Fine Craft. The Shape I'm In is the initial exhibition in a two-year long project, where John takes stock, revisits, and reflects.
“The outline of Alberta is not pretty nor better than other shapes, merely familiar. Sometimes it looks better on its back, or upside down. It’s a symbol, a metaphor, a device from the past and a constantly unfolding future that serves as my set of art pictographs on my own obscure rock wall. I’m content to be contained by its shape. It’s about the rise of the sun and the slant of the rain. Like a plant it’s where I grow.”
Our gallery is pleased to host this important show, which includes the screening of the film The Searcher - John Chalke by 291 Film Company.

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special places
where the human spirit
joins freely to the movement
of the land
Tom Willock M.Sc., A
Prairie Coulee, 1990
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updates.
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