In an artistic field dominated by men, a former Innisfail woman and her alder burl owl have done a little pioneering.
Lynn Branson, now living in Courtenay, B.C., topped the world-class interpretive wood-carving category on April 24 at the Ward World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition and Art Festival with her eight-kg, rosewood oil-finished Phantom of the Forest. She is the first female champion at the world level in any category at the competition, according to her and her partner Greg Pedersen.
The great horned owl carving, which sits on a Garry oak base, was cut over five months from a piece of wood Branson calls “a once in a lifetime find.”
While she considers the win nothing more than a personal achievement, Branson did note that there seem to be many more young female carvers involved these days.
“It’s taken many years of hard work for this recognition,” said Branson, who first told the Advocate of her dream to win the Ward World Championship when featured back in 1996.
She’d been to the competition in Salisbury, Md., a number of times since, landing a bronze and two silvers before grabbing gold.
The festival attracts thousands of spectators, and the 40th annual event this year boasted more than 1,400 wildfowl carvings from places as diverse as Russia, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Australia and Barbados.
Branson called the camaraderie at the championship “overwhelming.”
“It was a very historical moment and all of the Canadians cheered loudly,” said Pedersen, also a wood-carver.
Branson gets her inspiration from what she sees in the natural world, she said.
She has always loved wood and “maybe used carving to get away from a strict upbringing,” said Branson.
The addition of her work to a recent Robert Bateman retrospective exhibit has her thinking about her legacy.
“My goal is now to do something worthwhile in regards to preserving the environment,” she said.
Branson, who worked in Red Deer at Golden Circle Senior Resource Centre for about nine years, moved to Vancouver Island after her husband was killed in a horse-riding accident.
Phantom of the Forest will sit in The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art for a year.
Visit Branson’s website at www.rawearthcarvings.com
mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com