February 13 - March 22, 2003

Visual Arts Alberta is pleased to present Blooms, an exhibition of botanic paintings. Blooms showcases three different styles and approaches to floral representation - the elegant and romantic floribunda style oil paintings of artist Peggy Arnett, the delicate and realistic watercolours of Crystal Babcook, and the vibrant, expressive acrylics of Margaret Jones.

Peggy Arnett received a BFA with distinction from the University of Calgary in 1998. In the past four years she has been busy participating in various group exhibitions and completing four murals. Painting for Arnett is a way of seeing - hours of luminous colour of traffic lights, of the details on the buildings and of the relentless brightness of sun on snow, of light through the humid atmosphere or through the barriers of trees and branches and of signs and then the revisiting and remembering in the studio. She never visualizes what the finished work will be, always allowing it to be discovered. By this process she sometimes discovers connections in her work not consciously intended.

Crystal Babcook grew up on acreage in a small town in Northwestern Ontario. Rocks, trees, water and animals surrounded her life. She spent a lot of time sketching her surroundings. She grew up to have her first job in a ceramic shop and was given the freedom to paint pictures on the pieces. Here she took tole painting and calligraphy classes. Babcook sold her first piece of art to her history teacher at fourteen. That piece was sent to Germany and that started a career in selling various creations everywhere she lived. She spent every spare moment doing some craft or another.

Shortly after moving to Beaumont, she started picture framing as an extension to her craft business. She joined the Artist Association and took chalk pastel classes with them. That fateful day changed her focus and career plans. She has taken several workshops and spent a year under the guidance of Willie Wong. She paints on a full time basis and has participated in many group and individual showings.

Margaret Jones was born in Lloydminster, Alberta and grew up and attended school in Edmonton. She graduated as a Registered Nurse from the Misericordia in 1965 and after marrying Patrick Jones became an army wife, living in Islerhorn, West Germany, Winnipeg and Edmonton. She received a Post Graduate Degree in Gerentological Nursing from Grant MacEwan Community College in 1978.

In the late 1980's, Jones began taking various art courses. What she thought would only be a hobby turned out to be a satisfying addiction to painting. In 1984, she met Eileen Raucher-Sutton and began studying with her as a teacher and a mentor. She still continues with a critique groups at Sutton Art today. After taking a weekend seminar using fluid acrylic, Margaret never went back to watercolours. She also finds time to explore with glass paint, silk painting and polymer clay.

Opening Reception will be held on Thursday, February 13th, 2003, from 7:30 to 9:30pm.