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Central Alberta’s buggy, windy summers present many challenges for outdoor artist

Lynn LeCorre’s Alberta Bound exhibit is on at the Kiwanis Gallery
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Canola in Bloom (77th Street east of Red Deer), an acrylic work by artist Lynn LeCorre.

Big trucks, sudden winds, swarming bugs and changeable skies … ahhh… the glories of painting outdoors in Alberta.

Local artist Lynn LeCorre considers nature her muse — “It inspires me, calms me and awakens my senses…”

But she admits there are hazards to sitting beside an Alberta secondary highway, trying to capture scenery on canvas.

LeCorre enjoys the solitude and silence she experiences in the outdoors — “except for big trucks driving by” — and the fresh air — “except for the dust kicked up by big trucks on gravel roads.”

She says she doesn’t let the wind, rain and bugs stop her from seeking out new compositions and artistic challenges.

Her exhibit, Alberta Bound, Works by Lynn LeCorre, is showing at the Kiwanis Gallery, downstairs in the Red Deer Public Library.

Presented by the Red Deer Arts Council, it’s on until Oct. 14, with a First Friday reception on Sept. 6 from 6 to 8 p.m.

LeCorre, who works as an education co-ordinator at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery and teaches art programs for the City of Red Deer, was born in Saskatchewan, but grew up in various communities around Alberta.

The varied landscapes of this province instill her with a sense of “awe” and prompt her to hop in her car for road trips.

Whenever a scenic composition catches her eye, she sets up an easel and stool on a road allowance, or “any safe space that gives me the view I wish to paint,” and begins to sketch.

“I paint quickly before the fleeting light and sky change. This is my challenge.”

LeCorre has been creating works outdoors — known as plein air painting — for 15 years, and rarely uses photographs, except to capture winter landscapes or aerial views.

“I prefer to paint in nature… It’s the whole experience of painting outdoors that I respond to” — even if the wind dries up the paint on her palette and she has to unpick the occasional bug from her canvas.

Many works in this show are in a smaller format, which allows LeCorre to capture a scene quickly. Some of the plein air paintings are later reworked in her studio, or the inspiration for larger works.

LeCorre studied visual communications and display design at Grant MacEwan College and has a degree in art education from the University of Alberta.

She has taught art on and off for 30 years, as well as developed programs at various museums, including in High Level and Grande Prairie.

Her work has been exhibited in Alberta and B.C. and sells in commercial galleries.



lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com

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Bird’s Eye View, Peace River, by local artist Lynn LeCorre.