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Farrell-Adams' western art show at Parkside Art Gallery

The Western and wildlife art of Diane Farrell-Adams will be on display at Parkside Art Gallery
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Many pieces in Diane Farrell-Adams' show at Parkside Art Gallery depict Western life.

The Western and wildlife art of Diane Farrell-Adams will be on display at Parkside Art Gallery until July 20.

Painting the Cariboo” is a collection of the Bridge Lake rancher's visions, memories and experiences put to canvas. Anyone with an appreciation for cowboy life and nature will want to see this show.

More than 25 detailed paintings and pastel drawings make up the display, which fills the main gallery and spills out into the hallway.

Farrell-Adams has lived in Bridge Lake for 35 years, and along with her husband, Lorne Adams, they own and operate Banning Creek Ranch. The couple runs more than 250 head of cattle and much of Farrell-Adams' inspiration comes from her daily life.

Horses are her greatest love and were the first objects she truly concentrated on drawing as a child. She has them to near perfection now and they show up regularly in her art.

All I ever wanted to do is paint and draw,” she says, adding pastel is her favourite medium, as it allows her to add a high degree of definition to her drawings.

Colouring books were among her childhood playthings, and the centre of her early artistic endeavours, but she thought the simple pictures were foolish-looking.

I took the colouring books and turned them over and made my own drawings.”

Pastel is the medium used for a drawing of an angry grizzly bear, which is among her show pieces. The frightening image comes from her experience one summer as a cook for a hunting and guiding outfit near Nazko.

On her first day, she was left alone at a remote cabin while the others hunted. She went to the creek to scoop water into buckets, and on her way back to the cabin, she heard a rustling and footsteps in the bushes that sounded like she was being followed.

To her horror, it was a huge grizzly, so she calmly made her way to the cabin and bolted the flimsy door, hiding under the table while the bear made itself comfortable outside by the cabin steps for the next several hours. At the end of the day when the others returned, she handed in her resignation.

Farrell-Adams does most of her painting and drawing during the winter months when ranch work is at its quietest. She works in her log cabin studio on the secluded ranch, where in summer, art collectors from all over the world still manage to find her.

A good portion of her work has found homes in Germany and Australia and she says it's very satisfying to know people like her paintings enough to have them in their homes.

Her work has also caught the eye of the North American Academy of Western Artists, which inducted her in 1999.

Farrell-Adams' show will be at Parkside until July 20. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. The gallery is located at 401 Cedar Ave.