Whyte Avenue Art Walk

Yesterday a friend and I checked out the Whyte Avenue Art Walk, a three-day exhibit of the work of 450 artists, displayed along a 4-km walking stretch in the Old Strathcona neighbourhood. Since its inauguration in 1995, this non-juried art show has drawn more artists and visitors every year.

Here and there we passed stalls selling jewellery, clothing, airbrush/henna tattoos, and snacks, but for the most part the Art Walk is a massive outdoor painting gallery.

I'm not going to pretend to know anything about art, but I thought that a lot of the pieces were fantastic. There was such diversity that walking down the sidewalk took us from oil paintings of the Rockies, to perplexing avant-garde works, to paintings of candy, each just a few steps from the next.

by Leanne Schnierer

by Carmen Gonzalez

I particularly liked the local scenes -- paintings of the High Level Bridge, Garneau Theatre, Edmonton skyline, and prairies. I also thought that the silhouette paintings, done on canvases of sheet music or book pages, were whimsically beautiful. I can't say what kind of art I like best, but there were a dozen or so pieces that really stuck in my mind.

E Town Magnificence by Saeed Hojjati

I came away inspired by some of the simpler paintings -- like blotches of colour and gold foil on a big canvas -- that turned out so beautifully, but were patterns that I'd never think to paint if the canvas and paints were sitting in front of me. Man, these artists are creative! I guess that's why I'm not one.

shovel paintings -- talk about unique

The artists were fantastic, continuing to paint whilst chatting with the public -- after six hours of sitting out in the 30-degree heat. I was sweating within just a few minutes of strolling around with my iced coffee...which quickly became just a coffee. At least the weather's been dry -- and hopefully stays that way for the next couple of days.

The Art Walk runs from July 10 to 12 this year, 10 am to 5 pm. If you get the chance I'd recommend heading over to check it out!

bonus: you can also check out the Sand on Whyte sand carving competition while you're in the area (until July 12, 10 am - 10 pm)