Their talents only have a few more days to remain hidden, and the anticipation is reaching a fever pitch.
The many students of Hidden Talent Fine Art School in Campbell Park are putting the last touches on what will surely be a fast and furious show and sale set for Sunday afternoon. Paint the Town is one of the last events of the year that has at least part of its purpose meant to celebrate St. Albert’s sesquicentennial. It’s part of owner and instructor Laura Watmough’s Mona Lisa show series, a focus on paying homage to the old masters like Leonardo da Vinci while perpetuating their time-tested techniques.
Watmough explained that the Mona Lisa show is actually a typical summer activity for her students from all of her child and adult classes. She figured that the milestone anniversary warranted a feature wall dedicated to our fair city.
“That was very important. Usually we have the Mona Lisa in the spring but this year we gave people extra time. People got a lot more excited about it and did a greater variety this year than they’ve done before,” she began, calling it the same thing that her students always do, just different.
She wanted to make sure that attendees got a good taste of the small town that still breathes inside the big city. There are paintings of obvious landmarks and others of quaint, even rustic scenes: a farmer’s grain field recently tilled or a pathway through the Braeside section of the Red Willow trail system.
The quality of the work of these students – even the ones as young as six – is very good. It’s also surprising to see familiar names like Pearl Der or Jeannette Sommers branching out from their usual subjects and styles and trying new things.
“This is like an introduction to all of the new artists and a reintroduction to all of the old artists. It’s neat to see what they can all do.”
Paint the Town takes place for only three hours, meaning that members of the public had best be prepared for the crowd. It will feature approximately 100 works from almost three-dozen artists, including Watmough.
Many of the pieces will also be on sale, something that the artists shied away from in the past. Watmough recalled that she’d have many attendees ask her about the prices for works with no price tags so she had to rethink the purpose of the event.
“You don’t show people candy and not let them have it,” she explained.
Paint the Town happens in the studio’s Spotlight Gallery on Sunday, Dec. 4 from 1 to 4 p.m. Hidden Talent is located at 25 Chisholm Avenue.
Call 780-419-2055 or visit www.laurawatmough.com for more information.
