On the Weekend

I had a lovely Easter Weekend.  On Saturday, my friend, Elizabeth,  and I took a drive south of the city toward Turner Valley and the foothills, to the Leighton Art Centre here to see Calgary Fibre Artist Rachelle LeBlanc's hooked rug art exhibit.

Her show is entitled "Telling Stories one Loop at a Time - Beyond Traditions - Contemporary Rug Hooking"  Her medium is wool on linen using traditional rug hooking techniques.  Her subject matter is anything but traditional, using as her subjects children in various natural poses in nature.  She hooks her wall hangings with a painterly eye for colour and composition- thousands of tiny loops!   Whew!

The Leighton Centre itself is a wonderful destination gallery and an excuse, if I needed one, to take a drive out into the countryside on a gorgeous early spring day.  It boasts a big permanent collection too, contributed mostly by member artists, and changed fairly frequently.
 After A.C. Leighton passed away in the 1960's, his wife and fellow artist, Barbara, gradually turned their house into an art retreat, teaching facility and gallery.

I love this one at the top of the landing.  I felt I could walk up the stairs and right onto the pathway in the painting.  Glorious!
Saturday, the centre was hosting a big Easter Egg hunt outside, and the grounds were swarming with small egg hunters looking for the golden egg to win them first prize.  They had a gorgeous day for it. If you look closely, you can just make out the Easter Bunny hopping down the hill.

 For me though, the egg hunt had to compete with the snow covered Rockies and the warm spring temperatures and almost no snow to speak of.

The Leighton house cum gallery also boasts this amazing conservatory chock full of plants and just the place to sit for a quiet minute.

I've always wanted a conservatory. Even a small greenhouse would work for me.  You have to dream don't you?

Wandering around on the grounds, which are just losing the snow cover to the spring melt, I came upon Peter Vanteisenhausen's pole installation -  "Sanctuary"

There are 1000 wooden poles here, painstakingly installed by Vanteisenhausen in the prairie grass, marching in rows and clusters down the hill, west towards the mountains.  At the top of the hill above Sanctuary is a painting/meditation shelter.  The idea is to alter the viewer's impression of the landscape and the Rockies by looking through the poles.  The poles will be allowed to deteriorate and fall down on their own over time.  I leave you to form your own opinion on this one.
Personally, the grove of black and white birch trees won the day for me.