Four generations of artists share the walls at Luseland gallery
By Your Southwest Media Group
LUSELAND – The newest exhibit at the Luseland Library Art Gallery runs from a Grade 7 student's first canvases to the work of a farm woman who painted with Luseland's original art club in the 1970s.
Art of All Ages is now on display and brings together work from four generations of local artists: Saydee Bardick, Himani Sathwara, Cheryl Bergen and the late Margaret Leonard.
Luseland Library Art Gallery
Cheryl Bergen
Margaret Leonard
Himani Sathwara
Saydee Bardick
Saydee Bardick is the youngest artist in the show. She lives near Major and is in Grade 7 at Luseland District School. Her acrylic paintings capture the world around her. A fluffy black and white cat, a green four-wheel-drive tractor in a stubble field, a prairie windmill and two birds perched on a wire all share wall space, several of them painted on round canvases. A three-panel desert scene with saguaro cactus sits on a nearby shelf.
In her artist statement, Saydee says painting lets her be creative and express her ideas. She likes mixing colours to create her own shades, and she especially enjoys painting nature and animals. Painting helps her relax and feel happy, and she likes seeing an idea become a finished piece she can be proud of.
Himani Sathwara looks up for inspiration. Her acrylic work is full of skies, including a green aurora over a mountain lake, an orange prairie sunset over a field of yellow flowers, a moonlit ocean and a swirling galaxy. Himani lived in India before moving to Regina and then to Luseland. She finds the skies of Saskatchewan the most inspiring of all.
For Himani, painting is a way to step away from everyday life and focus on creating something. It brings her a sense of calm and accomplishment, and she enjoys experimenting with colour as an idea slowly becomes a finished painting.
Cheryl Bergen came to painting later in life. She started in 2020 after buying a backyard shed, which became her studio and the place where she explores her hobbies. She has since painted on brick, wood, canvas and glass.
Cheryl found her way into collage almost by accident. She began adding pieces of nature, such as bark, twigs, leaves and flowers, to her paintings for added depth and texture. Her pieces in the exhibit include an old grain elevator, a weathered barn, a winter fence line and a farmyard clothesline, with several works painted on rough-edged slabs rather than canvas.
Margaret Leonard anchors the oldest end of the exhibit. She spent her life farming in the Luseland area, where she raised three daughters, Darlene, Marlene and Peggy. In the 1970s she belonged to Luseland's Original Art Club, founded by Valerie Finley.
Her work on display includes a moonlit stand of evergreens reflected in still water, set in an ornate gold frame, and a large landscape of rolling hills dotted with autumn trees. Painting and creating art brought Margaret a great deal of joy, and that joy shows in her work.
Art of All Ages is on display at the Luseland Library Art Gallery during regular library hours.