Esteemed artist Gudrun Hirsche on display at Strathmore Library

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

With a new month comes a new artist or artists on display at the Strathmore Municipal Library. Over the course of April, Gudrun and Ken Hirsche have been welcomed back to the local gallery.

Assistant director of library services, Carmen Erison said this is the second time Gudrun has had her work on display at the library.

“She is a portrait artist and so this is something a little different than what we’ve had in our gallery before, (it) is a lot of portraits of individuals,” said Erison. “Because it is portraits, a lot of the pieces are not for sale, there’s only a select group of pieces that are for sale … as well as maybe three or four original pieces for sale.”

Erison added that repeating artists is not something that occurs particularly often within the library’s gallery, but after a reasonable amount of time, it can happen.

“We’ve been talking about it since about last fall, on when we were going to have their work back again,” said Erison. “We generally try not to repeat artists so quickly – we usually try to give about a year or a year and a half between when one artist is on display.”

Roughly two dozen originals are on display, as well as a number of prints depicting work Hirsche has sold previously.

Hirsche herself said she’s no stranger to showcasing her art. Her passion for creating, she said she inherited – beginning to practice at an early age.

“I have done this basically all my life. I have had one or two shows by myself here in Strathmore, but in other areas that I lived, we had exhibitions,” said Hirsche. “I inherited it from my grandmother and my dad … ever since I was little I’ve been drawing. I see the world differently than other people. When I look around, I look for compositions, I look for angles, I look for shapes and I see so many things I want to paint.”

Hirsche grew up in Salzbury, Austria, then resided as a young adult in Graz where she attended the local school for art professions. 

She explained to learn and practice, she would attempt to copy the works of artists such as Van Gough, Picasso, Michelangelo and Monet.

Hirsche said despite having displayed and sold her art all over the world, she settled in Strathmore to be close to family in Airdrie. 

A meet the artist event was hosted at the library on April 9 for those who were curious to come out, meet and chat with Hirsche about her craft.