More times than Kayla Eykelboom would care to count, she's been met with blank stares while explaining her latest art piece to familiar faces. "I've known people for 10 to 16 years around town and they're like, 'Oh, you paint?' " Eykelboom joked.
More times than Kayla Eykelboom would care to count, she's been met with blank stares while explaining her latest art piece to familiar faces.
"I've known people for 10 to 16 years around town and they're like, 'Oh, you paint?' " Eykelboom joked.
She does paint - a lot, in fact - and the artist's bedroom overflows with her colourful paintings sometimes, and she's even needed to store others in a second bedroom for a time.
The rising artist from Canmore admits there are some things she could do more to spread the word of her original acrylic paintings that focus on nature in Banff National Park.
So after the opportunity arose for Eykelboom to piece together new material to showcase at her debut exhibit called Glacier Fed, which begins Thursday (Feb. 15) from 7-9 p.m. at Banff's Botega Salon and Gallery (211 Bear Street) in Bison Courtyard, she began plastering posters on billboards around the valley, selecting the night's hors d'oeuvre, and getting it into the ear of friends.
"I'm really excited to socialize and share my art," she said. "It's a really quick (opening reception) from 7-9 p.m., and I'm just so excited for people to see my art.
"Everything in Glacier Fed is really inspired by photos I took while I worked for Parks Canada (as an aquatic ecology researcher)."
"I was always at backcountry lakes and researching fish and I spent a lot of time around water, so there are a lot of teals, blues and greens I used from my photos to build this collection of alpine lakes."
Teal is probably her favourite colour, in case you were wondering.
The Glacier Fed collection features 12 core pieces Eykelboom created over the past two months, ranging in size from 12 x 24 to 36 x 36 inches. The hope is her art will be on display at Botega for a few months.
The self-taught artist had been creating art for about a decade before attending university in Edmonton for ecology.
"I'd come home (from university) and put off writing a paper to sit down with a canvas for a couple of hours," she said. "It's a good outlet to put things aside and take a break; it's my favourite thing to do at home."
Away from the Bow Valley while at school, the mountains have inspired Eykelboom's creativity since moving to Canmore in 2005. And, like many who have lived here, she wants to preserve local ecosystems whether it's through ecology or art.
"My mission through art is to celebrate the beautiful places I've been and recognize they are a little bit fragile in the grand scheme of things and remind people we have to take care of them," the artist said.
Eykelboom has also designed the logo for the 2018 Canmore Folk Music Festival in August, focusing on the famous Stan Rogers Memorial Stage, iconic mountains, trees and wildlife.
With a debut exhibit ready to go and a Folk Fest logo in the works, Eykelboom hopes any confusion on whether she's an artist or not, finally comes to an end.
"Hopefully (my art) becomes a little more well known in the small town of Canmore and hopefully onwards, as well," she said.
For more information, visit the Facebook page: Kayla Eykelboom Artist.
