Skip to content

Featured artist has ties to Ponoka Art Club

An artist with strong ties to the Ponoka Art Club will be the featured artist at the club’s annual show and sale May 25 and 26.

An artist with strong ties to the Ponoka Art Club will be the featured artist at the club’s annual show and sale May 25 and 26.

Marilynne Magistad was always interested in drawing, painting and observing things. In high school she took art classes for two years, learning some basic skills on various perspectives, and enjoying the relaxation this class gave her from the pressures of Grade 12 subjects.

“I still have some of the little pictures and drawings I did that last year of school,” she said. “I must say that what I learned then really was pretty sketchy to what I now know from practice and instruction.

As an adult Magistad has enjoyed taking photographs and she took up quilting, mostly for the design aspects. She has made many quilts, entering some of them in competition, locally and in Wetaskiwin at a regional exhibition.

She worked full-time as a nurse for 30 years and life was busy so she didn’t take up painting or drawing until after her retirement in the late 1990s when she no longer could hand-quilt due to arthritis.

“The Ponoka Art Club was instrumental in my getting involved in painting, and I choose to mainly do watercolour work. I took classes that interested me, wrote up my notes from each and gradually learned how to use this medium again. I found a passion for painting white flowers and have done several paintings of various flowers. However, I find it is good to do many subjects, although I do not try and do much with portraits.”

Magistad said one of her sisters is also interested in painting and drawing and they worked together. Their maternal grandfather also dabbled in oils and she learned recently her mother’s sister is also painting in her retirement. “My brother also used to be quite good, although untrained, at drawing, especially cars. Perhaps there is an artistic bent in my family.”

Magistad has sold pictures locally, and from coast to coast, mostly through word of mouth from family and friends.

The Ponoka Art Club show and sale takes place at the Ponoka Seniors Drop-In Centre May 25 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and May 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.