CANMORE – A collection of original artwork and limited edition giclees from several decades of work will be on full display at the Canmore Art Guild’s gallery at Elevation Place throughout July.
Nattalia Lea, a Bow Valley painter, is the featured artist for the gallery which will show a retrospective of her work, making for a diverse showcase.
“I’m very blessed and grateful for the opportunity,” said Lea.
Lea’s paintings mainly reflect things she notices in her environment around her. From flowers, window scenes, buildings and even children’s running shoes that were thrown into a colourful chaos.
“I paint what my heart wants me to paint. I won’t paint something unless I’m excited about it,” said Lea.
Lea’s work as an artist began in Grade 1, when she started putting clothes on stick people she progressed to her Grade 5 crayon and watercolour painting at a children’s show at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Lea attended children’s painting in park classes with her sister and she eventually graduated from high school with an art award as a student who showed promise for a career in the field.
Coming from a working-class family, where she was raised by a single mother of four, she studied engineering at university but also took fine art courses in painting, drawing and composition.
She was accepted as an active member by the Federation of Canadian Artists and worked in the engineering field and Alberta energy industry. She has also been a freelance journalist, author, award-winning screenplay writer and independent filmmaker.
Throughout all her adventures in different jobs, she kept painting as she described it as a positive constant in her life that allows her to meditate and get lost in time.
Lea’s work has previously been featured in New York City at the Guerrilla Gallery, where the mobile show displayed original acrylic on canvas paintings that were available as NFTs. She is also currently working on digital art for Beakerhead.
“I hope when they leave [the gallery], they feel better than when they entered, like they were somehow uplifted,” said Lea.
An opening reception was held June 28 and the exhibit will be on display until July 30.
