Easter (ART) House Hunt

Come by the Carrot’s window and take a good look at our original art houses in person. 

Start your neighbourhood search and try to identify each house! Write the address for your best guess under each on this sheet.

 Hint: All the houses are located near Alberta Avenue from 112 Ave to 120 Ave and 92 St to 96 St. Some of the titles for the pieces include hints of where the house is located so be sure to take a look at the labels!

HOW TO PLAY: 

1. Submit your sheet by email to: coordinator@thecarrot.ca (You can take a photo with your phone, or scan it). 

2. The person to get the most correct will win a prize! 

All Artwork © Robin Light

GOOD LUCK! ENJOY THE FRESH AIR AND REMEMBER TO PRACTICE SAFE PHYSICAL DISTANCING 

It Takes A Village

Join us to ensure no family or child goes hungry during this Covid-19 crisis. With schools closing and unemployment rising due to this national emergency, the need for accessible food is growing exponentially.
It takes a village to raise a child and it’s up to us as a community to come together and help those in need.

Whether you can donate a little or a lot, your contribution will have an incredible impact!

Donations can be made through ATB Cares:
https://atbcares.benevity.org/communi…/…/124-852990159RR0001

ATB will match all donations 50% up to $1000 per donation for the month of April.

AOTA will use donations to buy food and necessities to supplement families and community members' food resources in the Alberta Avenue district during this uncertain time.

Extraordinary times = Extraordinary helpers

#AOTA #ATBCares #community

Due to COVID-19 our storefront is on pause, but we're online - please join us!

Hello Friends,

Given the most recent COVID-19 updates, The Carrot hours will be suspending (we’re putting the Carrot on pause).

The power of the arts and community is amazingly strong! We're all in this together. The art revolution continues on 118 Avenue. Please follow us daily for social media for art, laughter, daily news and updates. Our staff is working hard to keep our community connected through our social media! Remember to walk on the sunny side of the street, and join us online.

We are checking messages, so if you need to contact us, you may leave a message at (780) 471 - 1580 or email us at info@artsontheave.org

Take care friends,

Carrot Management

Albertavia Mummers Collective

On Thursday, January 9, The Carrot is pleased to welcome the Albertavia Mummers Collective for a Deep Freeze Festival warm-up. The team of artists bring together mythical lore, history, and the essence of communities in a 20-minute play for all to enjoy. Play starts at 6 pm!

What is a Mummers Play?

Theatre (Mummery) is a tradition that goes back to the middle ages when, during Christmas, or just before Lent, serfs and peasants would dress up in “disguises” and present pageant style performances to their liege lords. These performances were almost always in rhyme and involved certain set elements such as the theme of death and resurrection, as well as certain recurring characters such as St. George, Dame Jane (usually played by a man), Tom Fool, A Monk or Doctor, a monster of some sort, and some hero and heroine plot twist.

There are three main styles within the Mummers tradition: the Battle/Combat, the Wooing, and the Tup. Often elements of all three styles can be found in certain plays. The plays were presented to the lords at their castles and estates in hopes of donations of food or coins or clothes. The mummers tradition was prevalent throughout Europe and grew and developed many variations in different countries, changing and evolving from the middle ages to modern times. Today we see it still alive and thriving all over modern Europe as well as the US, and Canada. It has found a particularly rich expression in the east coast maritime provinces. It is now sprouting up in communities all over Canada, and we are eager to join in the fun.

Gallery - November and December 2019

Yvonne DuBourdieu & Agata Garbowska - Impermanence of Things Remembered

We are pleased to announce that Yvonne DuBourdieu and Agata Garbowska will be closing the year off as featured artists of The Carrot Gallery. The Opening Reception will be on November 14th from 7 - 9 PM. Pop in for light refreshments and to meet the artists!

Impermanence of Things Remembered is a dual exhibition featuring landscape paintings that explore ideas of imperfection and impermanence.

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Yvonne DuBourdieu, On This Day Clearly Seen, 36” x 48”, Oil on canvas

About the Artists

Yvonne DuBourdieu has been a documentary filmmaker for most of her life, but now splits her time behind the camera and in the studio. DuBourdieu is an emerging contemporary expressionist painter working mostly in oil. She blends marks of realism, impressionism and abstraction to the subjects that populate her works: landscapes, birds, animals and humans. Always interested in things ‘other,’ she is continually exploring a sense of place and themes of belonging, often embracing the ‘outsider’ in an unexpected world of illusory spaces or imagined realms.

Each work in DuBourdieu’s collection invokes a memory of place, set in landscapes of invention, infused with an energy that comes with reliving or reimagining a moment through memory. These recollections have been roused and pieced together through looking back at photographs from her past and using the figurative imagery as source material for the paintings. The process of looking back can spark a flood of emotions that set off a chain reaction, unleashing seemingly disparate thoughts and feeding into one another till the connective emotions drift in and out of the imperfect, impermanence of things remembered.

To learn more about DuBourdieu’s work, visit https://www.yvonnedubourdieu.ca/

Agata Garbowska, These Fragments I have Shored Against My Ruins II, 24” x 36”, Oil on board, vinyl, and plexiglass

Agata Garbowska is a painter, printmaker and frequent lurker on the Edmonton arts scene. Her most recent body of work is an exploration of spaces in flux. These spaces are not inhabited, but suggest human presence with select objects and remnants. Panel and plexiglass, materials often used in the construction of everyday space, are combined with painting, collage, and sculpture, to construct pieces that echo with human presence. These pieces are informed by our ongoing ecological disaster—an attempt to reckon with the catastrophic consequences of our comfortable everyday domesticity.

To learn more about Garbowska’s work, visit https://agatagarbowska.weebly.com/

Gallery - October 2019

Jay Bigam - Elements

We are pleased to announce that Jay Bigam is October's featured artist of The Carrot Gallery! The Opening Reception will be on October 3rd from 7 - 9 PM. Pop in to meet the artist!

Bigam's exhibition, "Elements," will be showing at The Carrot Gallery from October 1st to November 2nd. His pieces are produced using oil paints, solvents, sawdust, metallic spray paint..and fire!

About the Artist

Jay is a self-taught artist who paints modern impressionist landscapes and skyscapes, with a special emphasis on severe weather in Alberta. Known for his use of colour and movement, his paintings are a reflection of his love of nature and science. Since 2016, he has been involved in the Alberta storm chaser community and has been basing much of his work on weather seen while storm chasing.

In 2016, Jay was a nominee in the Alberta Foundation for the Arts 25 Influential Alberta Artists awards.

Jay loves the experience of producing live art and interacting with the public while doing so. He has made art at numerous festivals and venues

To learn more about Bigam's work, visit earthskyart.ca.

Gallery - September 2019

Jill Thomson - Urban Gardens

Jill Thomson, Flora, 60x 90”, Oil on canvas

For the month of September, we are welcoming local artist Jill Thomson to The Carrot Art Gallery. Come in from September 3–28th, 2019 and see familiar neighbourhood scapes and urban flora.

On September 26th, 2019, The Carrot will be hosting the Closing Reception of Jill Thomson's "Urban Gardens." Join us to bid a fond adieu to the whispering leaves and sweet scents of our summer wildflowers.

About the Artist

Jill Thomson's artwork evokes her personal history of a small town/prairie childhood, an urban Montreal young adulthood and a settled life as artist and mother of three in Edmonton. Her rich colourful palette and complex compositions celebrate a creative life in cities with generous front porches, cafes, bookstores, bicycle paths, gardens and ravines.

You can see more of Jill Thomson’s work here: https://jillthomson.com/home.html

Gallery - August 2019

Maria Pace-Wynters - Summer Mix

Maria Pace-Wynters, Orange Pekoe, 14″x28″, Mixed media painting on canvas

For August, we are welcoming local artist Maria Pace-Wynters to The Carrot Art Gallery.

Stop by The Carrot on Thursday, August 8, 2019 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm for the Opening Reception of Maria Pace-Wynters' "Summer Mix."

Maria Pace-Wynters’ “Summer Mix” represents a tension between the comfort of the mundane and thrill of adventure. The juxtaposition is portrayed in the demure disposition of the eyes in her subjects and the vivacious objects around them. There is also a sense of the ephemeral as the imagery on the porcelain is transcendent through time, but all else is fleeting.

Maria Pace-Wynters was born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia. She attended Victoria College of Art, Camosun College (Associate of Arts degree), the University of Victoria (BFA honour program) and Victoria Film School before settling down in Edmonton, Alberta. She sells her work online through Etsy and locally at The Carrot, Sabrina Butterfly and her Alberta Ave studio.

You can see more of Maria Pace-Wynters' work here: www.mariapacewynters.com

Gallery - July 2019

Catherine McMillan - Stories from my Inner World

Catherine McMillan, Paper Lantern Dream, Acrylic and Oil on Wood panel, 18”x18”

In July, we are welcoming Catherine McMillan to The Carrot Gallery.

“I approach all of my paintings intuitively, beginning with thick textured gesso, followed by layers of fluid acrylic paint and then oil paint repeatedly applied and wiped off until I feel the right atmosphere is created. Sometimes I start with a sketch or a clear destination in mind, but often my ideas come out of the work itself and simply evolve from somewhere inside of me. Over time, these paintings of little unfinished stories quietly tell me secrets about who I am and what I deeply believe about life.”

 McMillan’s intuitive instinct has taken her down many paths.  She has wandered the world as a street caricature artist, opened a commercial art studio/cafe called The Quirky Art Café, and spent many years teaching a variety of art classes. In 2014, she decided to close her café/teaching studio so that she could focus on her own painting.

A notable accolade of McMillan includes having her painting, Lullaby, be accepted in the “I am a Woman and this is my Legacy” show at the Laura I Gallery in London, England. She was also invited to participate in Double Vision 2018 show at the Paper Mill Gallery, Toronto, Ontario. Catherine is represented by Gossamer Treasures Gallery in Wabumum, Alberta and her artwork is in collections throughout Canada, the US, Europe and Australia.  

You can see more of Catherine McMillan's work here: https://www.catherinemcmillan.com/

Prints of Catherine McMillan’s works are available for purchase at The Carrot.

Gallery - June 2019

Karen Bishop - Living on the Land II

Karen Bishop, …and peace descends on the land, 26x40”, Watercolour on Yupo

This June, we are welcoming Karen Bishop to The Carrot Gallery.

Stop by The Carrot on June 6, 2019 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm for the Opening Reception of Karen Bishop’s "Living on the Land II."

“I have always been a landscape painter. I enjoy little more than heading out to Jasper National Park and finding a spot where I can let my creativity run wild as I capture the spectacular scene in front of me.”

Bishop translates her deep reverence for the natural world in her watercolour paintings. Rather than using traditional cotton rag paper, Bishop uses yupo, a smooth, white synthetic paper that does not absorb watercolour paint easily. This allows  Bishop to use a reductive technique where she paints a background layer with wild and intuitive colours, then lifts away parts of the painting to reveal shapes. Wildlife and landscape are emerged. The animals are difficult to discern, creating a mysterious, ghost-like quality. Bishop’s technique articulates the symbolism that animals and landscape are dependent on one another.

Gallery - May 2019

Haylee Fortin - An Assemblage of Natural Things

Haylee Fortin, Clark’s Nutcracker, 24x30”, Oil and acrylic on canvas

For April, we are welcoming local artist Haylee Fortin to The Carrot Gallery.

Stop by The Carrot on May 2, 2019 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm for the Opening Reception of Haylee Fortin's "An Assemblage of Natural Things"

These paintings focus largely on collages of local flora and fauna. Re-contextualizing and isolating the figures in new or unnatural environments brings attention to their form and expressiveness. The compositions play with perceptions of nature and our interactions with the wild.

Haylee Fortin is an emerging artist based in Edmonton, Alberta and graduate of the University of Alberta BFA program. Fortin's work involves collecting and fragmenting media from online sources which are then reworked through collage, painting and new media.

You can see more of Haylee Fortin's work here: https://hayleefortin.weebly.com/

Gallery - April 2019

Becki Petersen and Runa Gedam - Conversations

Runa Gedam, Oil on canvas, The one we love to hate, the Rickshawala, 24 x 30 inches

For April, we are welcoming local artists Becki Petersen and Runa Gedam to The Carrot Gallery. This exhibition is a conversation between two local artists who draw inspiration from an environment not found in their day-to-day.

Becki Petersen is a visual artist living in Edmonton, but her heart will forever stay in the mountains and among the clouds which is where she draws a great deal of her inspiration from. Petersen focuses on the shapes, movement and emotions of the sky using acrylic, her preferred method, to translate those sensations to canvas. For more of Petersen's work see her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BeckiPetersenArt/

Runa Gedam was born in India and moved to Canada in 2007. Gedam reflects that being so far away from home can be very lonely but also inspiring. The artist misses the colours, the chaos and the hustle of everyday life she grew up with in India, and those memories inspire the colours and subject of her paintings. You can find more of Runa Gedam's paintings on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Runasart/

Gallery - March 2019

Sharon Moore-Foster - Stilled Life

Sharon Moore-Foster, Antler I Stilled Life Series, 27 x 27 inches, Ink and Watercolour

In March, we are welcoming Sharon Moore-Foster to The Carrot Gallery.

“I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teachings my blood whispers to me.” ~ Hermann HesseArt is a process, as is life. You acquire new information and integrate it with the old, as well as surrender to the present with a bizarre send of, “Okay, let’s go”. I communicate through various media. The drawings are curious organic investigations into human form and essence.

Transition: the flow of beings from one form to another—the flow of creation from one media to another. Searching for similarities and welcoming contradictions, this empty space requires trust. Intuition bridges the gap between here and tomorrow.”

Join us at The Carrot on March 28, 2019 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm for the Closing Reception of this phenomenal Exhibition.

Gallery - February 2019

Keita Kwame Kankam - Light and Colour

We are celebrating Black History Month at The Carrot! We welcome Keita Kwame Kankam to The Carrot Gallery. Kankam was born in Accra, Ghana and studied at the Ghanatta college of art and design in Accra where in 2006 Kankam obtained a diploma in art and design. Recently, Kankam took part in the mentorship programme at the Visual Arts of Alberta last year which ended in May 2017.

To quote Kankam, "My favourite genres are abstract compositions, still life, landscapes, and village scenes. I prefer using acrylic colours, inks, pastels, and charcoal because once they are easy to use, one knows how to manipulate them. Starting to paint on my own as an independent artist has not been easy, there have been times of success and downfalls, but with the passage of time I have seen the beauty humor and value in all my work."

Keita Kwame Kankam, Busy Birds I, 14 x 18 inches, Acrylic on canvas

Gallery - December 2018

Ekaterina Vopiyashina

Ekaterina Vopiyashina was born and grew up in Russia, Volgograd. Vopiyashina studied academic drawing and painting at several art studios in Moscow. She moved to Calgary, Alberta in 2015 to pursue her BFA degree from Alberta Collage of Art and Design with a major in Print Media. Vopiyashina works in several traditional printmaking techniques, exploring themes of femininity and appearance.

In honour of the season, Ekaterina has created and hand-printed a set of six Christmas cards, inspired by designs from the Victorian era. These unique cards offer a touch of humour and nostalgia for art lovers and collectors.

Gallery - October 2018

Maria Pace-Wynters and Mireille Péloquin

Show runs until November 17! Both artists have close connections to the Alberta Avenue community, and we are so happy to feature their work side by side at The Carrot for an extended showing. All work is available for sale at The Carrot.

Maria Pace-Wynters is a mixed media artist who lives in the Alberta Ave. area.  Originally from Victoria, B.C. she has made Edmonton her home for the last twenty years.  Her art is collected around the world through online auctions and her Etsy shop. Maria is also a featured artist at The Carrot where she her sells fine art reproductions.

Mireille Péloquin is the tenth in a family of 13 children, and has lived across Canada in Winnipeg, Montreal, New Brunswick, the high Arctic, and windy Lethbridge. Encaustic art dominates her current work as she is inspired by its ancient roots and her ability to use Alberta beeswax to reflect her own prairie roots and international travel.

Calling all Pumpkin Carvers!

Are you known for your creative, spooky, or whimsical pumpkins? Apply to carve a pumpkin for our Headless Carrot Halloween party! Selected carvers will be paid $50.

Fill out my online form.

Gallery: July 2018

Kyla Firby

Gallery Reception: Wednesday, July 4th | 7:00 - 9:00 pm | 9351 118 Ave | FREE | Details Here

Artist Bio

Life can be busy, stressful, and overwhelming at times. At least that is how I feel working as an engineer and raising young children, while battling depression. Marking art is my tiny bit of calm in the eye of the storm. A chance for creative expression and to reflect on the beauty in life.

While I have no formal arts training, I have made art since I can remember. I have only recently started to share my artwork with the general public, selling my first piece at the 2017 Kaleido Festival Gallery. I work mainly with ink and watercolours, and have began to experiment with acrylics. My drawing style developed organically from doodling in the margins of my school notebooks and my work as a face painter. I start with a pencil sketch of the image outline. I then start to fill in the spaces with individual shapes. It is like fitting a puzzle together. I love watching the image emerge as each piece falls into place.

I was born in Toronto and studied Environmental Engineering at the University of Guelph. I moved to Edmonton in 2008, where I worked as a professional engineer for ten years. While my post secondary education and career have been largely math and science focused, I have always had the need for creative expression. Drawing and painting allow me to use other parts of my brain and feel more balanced as a person.

Creative expression has been particularly value to me during periods of depression. When life seems overwhelming I retreat to my basement. I shut out the world and surround myself with art. Even when I have lost the ability to do many other things, I can still draw and paint. It makes me feel a little bit better that even if I am feeling down I can create something beautiful.

Check out more of Kyla's art here!

Flowers and Flyers: Artist Statement

Flowers and Flyers is a series of drawings done with ink on paper. These pieces were created in the late summer, when the world feels so alive with flowers blooming and creatures flying by. For me these drawings express feelings of freedom, movement, and a desire to be outside. They reflect not how I felt, but how I wanted to feel; light and imaginative, yet ordered and balanced.

Chalk It Up In The Community - Call For Artists

Community Celebration!

Join Arts on the Ave for a community celebration as we take over side streets and back alleys with chalk images and word art.

July 21, 2018
9:00 am - 5:00 pm

We need chalk artists! This event is for both emerging and professional chalk artists. The deadline to apply is Friday, June 15th at Midnight. Apply online below:

Fill out my online form.

Eats on 118 is Back!

After a huge success in 2016 and 2017, Eats on 118 is back this summer for two tour dates, June 13th and August 29th, from 6:00 - 9:00 pm. 

A culinary tour de force, Alberta Avenue Business Association and Wild Heart Collective,  guide culinary enthusiasts along Alberta Avenue to discover a variety of dishes from some of the Avenue's best restaurants. 

The June 13th tour will feature Paraiso Tropical, Battista's Calzone Co. and Handy Bakery. Participating restaurants for the August 29 tour will be released later this summer. 

Participants are encourage to purchase tickets early as tour space is limited and sell out quickly. Get your tickets here!

In support of Spark! Youth Camps, ticket purchasers will have the option of adding $2 onto the price of the ticket, which will be donated to the organization.  

More information here.