DETAILS
Art in the Open
A one-day self-guided show and sale tour at 14 different addresses located in Akinsdale, Forest Lawn, Kingswood, Erin Ridge, Deer Ridge, North Ridge and Heritage Lakes.
This year's event features more than 30 artists including Vanessa Ali, Shirley Allan, Al Anderson, Victoria Armstrong, Laurena Beirnes, Lorraine Bérubé, Carol Brown, Berni Buyse, Susan Casault, Julie Daly, Christina Doehring, Brian Doran, Myra Emms, Wayne Gorman, Holly Cheverie, Julie Kaldenhoven, Clarence Kingsley-Pillai, Peg McPherson, Elizabeth (Liz) Meetsma, Luise Mendler-Johnson, Alexsandra Mitchell, Elaine Mulder, Frances Pelletier, Claudette Pelletier-Hannah, Rayma Peterson, Tracy Lyn Propp, Andrew Raczynski, Memory Roth, Tom Steele, Hilda Valdes, and Sue Waring.
Organized by the St. Albert Painters Guild
Saturday, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Visit the Painters Guild’s website for more information including an interactive map and a printable map: paintersguild.ca
For artists like Myra Emms, Art in the Open is the one big show and sale of the year. She doesn’t have gallery representation and she doesn’t have a website. She paints and she still likes to have people see and buy her paintings, though.
"I retired just a few years ago. I just feel like my time flies by so quickly. I don’t have a chance to really approach people and get out there. I do it more for me," she began.
Unlike many arts events, Art in the Open actually got its start during the current pandemic. It debuted in 2021 and did a booming business in terms of sales and in fostering interactions between the public and St. Albert’s prodigious community of visual artists through the St. Albert Painters Guild.
While Emms wasn't involved in that inaugural outing, but she heard all the wonderful things that other painters had to say about it. That sealed the deal for her.
"I thought it was a really excellent way of getting people out to see the artists’ work since COVID had us all off of doing that. It was really a creative way of doing it. People get to see a bit of St. Albert. They also get to see the whole gamut of the artists’ works because usually in a show you only get to show two or three pieces and they have to be original artworks and you don’t have the opportunity to sell say some of their prints or anything else that they may do. This gives them a really good opportunity to show their whole portfolio."
The rain or shine Art in the Open takes place on Saturday, June 11. It's basically the same format as last year with maps people can download and print or view interactively on their mobile devices as they're out and about on the day.
Painters will be stationed mostly in garages or tents set up at local residences. There, they will have easels and tables set up with all of their creative wares on display and for sale.
Emms will have at least 25 original paintings as well as framed prints for sale. She will also have some small paintings of fun and inspirational sayings as well as painted monster rocks, two new additions to her store “just to have something different…” for sale, she says, “just for fun.”
"I wanted to give people the opportunity to buy something that’s not going to be too expensive, something that hopefully they’ll remember me."
