Rosebud artist participates in Art in the Park

Laureen F. Guenther
Times Contributor

 

Valerie Speer, Rosebud artist, joined 11 other Alberta and British Columbia artists for Art in the Park at Glacier National Park, Aug. 2-6.
The retreat was hosted by Glacier National Park and Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre, and sponsored by the Alpine Club.
The artists, ranging in age from 20 to 70, work in various artistic media, Speer said. Several are painters, some working in acrylic as Speer does. One works in Japanese ink wash and others are photographers.
Speer called herself an immersionist, saying, “I like the idea of being somewhere, kind of immersing yourself in an environment and then reflecting on it, because then it [the art produced] is way more authentic.”
She and her fellow artists spent their days hiking and viewing, and sketching, painting or photographing.
“When we were out hiking, we’d stop at certain places, and spend a chunk of time sketching certain vistas … and then taking photos,” she said. “When you’re hiking with artists, you have other people who think like you, so you get to stop and look at that bizarre moss or look at that bizarre mushroom, and people don’t think you’re weird.”
One day they climbed through fog to Abbott Ridge.
“It looks disorientating when you’re hiking up in an area that you don’t know and you’re in the fog,” she said. “We were on the ridge, and then you’d kind of see, oh there’s a couple of peaks over there, and then it would sock right back in.”
They sat on the ridge for a couple of hours, watching the fog clear in one direction, and sketching as quickly as possible before that view closed again and another opened.
Speer did blocking and sketching while in the Park, so she’d have material to work with when she got home.
“When you actually have to discipline yourself to sit and sketch, it becomes a really peaceful time and I really loved that,” she said. “Everyone would go really quiet and be in their own little space. It was just beautiful.
“I love the part of just hearing other people, how they think, how they process and ideas that they have.”
The artists’ work, inspired by Glacier National Park, will be exhibited in Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre in November.
“It will be like Christmas,” Speer said. “It’s like all these lovely surprises and you get to see people’s work.”
The exhibit may tour further across Canada during 2017, and Speer hopes to bring it to Rosebud’s Akokiniskway Gallery.
“My hope is when people experience a show like this, it will give them a greater appreciation of what’s in our own backyard, and even just the preciousness of having national parks,” Speer said. “It is our national heritage and treasure, and I think highlighting it in a show like this hopefully puts it back in the spotlight as something to be valued and protected.”