Helen Christou Gallery
Under Prairie Skies
September 28, 2024 – January 4, 2025

Highlighting iconic features of the southern Alberta landscape, from rigid peaks and rolling hills to endless prairies and ever-changing skies, this exhibition highlights the influence A.Y. Jackson and the Lethbridge Sketch Club had on one another.

P.J. Collins and Anna MacKenzie formed the Lethbridge Sketch Club after returning home from their studies at the Banff School of Fine Arts in 1936. After experiencing the camaraderie amongst the students at the school, the two artists determined that Lethbridge needed its own society of artists that could inspire and support one another. What started as a local club of art enthusiasts quickly grew into a group of artists that would receive local, national and international exhibitions through the Western Canada Art Circuit. When not exhibiting, the Club organized outings and classes with emerging national artists, such as H.G. Glyde and Walter J. Phillips, to help members broaden their skills.

Elsewhere in Canada, artist A.Y. Jackson was keeping busy with his own artistic practice. Having helped form the infamous Group of Seven in the early 1920’s, Jackson was a household name known for his paintings of the Canadian landscape. His bold, expressive style vastly differed from the realism that was accepted at the time and helped separate Canada’s artistic identity from its British counterpart. Jackson also served as a war artist during World War I, helped form the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933 and taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts each summer from 1943 to 1949, all while travelling across Canada capturing familiar and iconic scenes of the land.

While Jackson had traveled to Alberta many times throughout his life to visit his brother Ernest in Lethbridge, it wasn’t until 1937 that Jackson sketched his first oil painting of the Alberta landscape. Shortly after, Ernest introduced Jackson to the Lethbridge Sketch Club and the meetings between the two quickly became frequent and mutually beneficial. Jackson would invite the Sketch Club to his brother’s house, where he would present sketches from his recent travels for the group to review. The exposure to more experimental landscape painting fueled the Club’s interest in on-site sketching, while his shared knowledge left lasting impressions. Likewise, the Club members were able to bring Jackson to some of their favorite locations across Southern Alberta, where Jackson would spend many years sketching both independently and alongside the Club.

Jackson continued to visit southern Alberta frequently until the late 1950’s when he returned to work in Ontario until his death in 1974. Meanwhile, the Lethbridge Sketch Club continued to provide art resources for the community and laid the groundwork for future art developments within Lethbridge. The club continues to be active to this day under a new name; the Lethbridge Art Club.

Jessica Colley Curator, Buchanan Summer Internship

Southern Alberta Art Gallery, A History of the Lethbridge Sketch Club 1936-1950: The Early Years. (Southern Alberta Art Gallery, 1985).
Wayne Larsen, A.Y. Jackson: The Life of a Landscape Painter. (Dundurn Press, 2009).
Southern Alberta Art Gallery, A.Y. Jackson in Southern Alberta. (Southern Alberta Art Gallery, 1981).