By Josee St-Onge
The unassuming exterior of Crocus Ridge Gallery hints nothing of the treasures that are housed inside. The little white building, which dates from 1910, is an old Anglican church. It is a part of the history of the village of Mortlach, and now hopes to be a vital part of its future.
When the Anglican church closed its doors in 2002, one of its parishioners, Donna Cowell, purchased the building and donated it to the town of Mortlach.
“She didn’t want it to be a garage or something like that. She wanted it to be something that would be nice in a church,” explained Mortlach resident Marilyn Forbes.
It was Marilyn’s daughter, Tracy Gardner, the village administrator, who decided to open Crocus Ridge Gallery. “We had been to Lakeland Gallery, north of Prince Albert, and we always stopped in, we loved it. Even when she was a kid it was something that Tracy thought was really quite neat. So when they asked her what might go here, that’s what she decided,” said Marilyn.
Today the gallery is managed by Marilyn and owned by her husband, Larry Forbes. Not only does she travel to local craft shows to find new artists, Marilyn also contributes some of her own art to the gallery.
She and local artist Vi Domeij make delicate ceramic reproductions of crocuses. It takes about two months to handcraft 20 to 25 pieces.
The process is not always without hiccups and Marilyn and Vi share a laugh about the many flowers that ended up in pieces over the years. “You get them just about all done and you break off a leaf or something like that,” laughs Vi.
Larry Forbes pipes in: “Marilyn always drops Vi’s.” “I don’t touch Vi’s anymore!” Marilyn responds. Larry himself is an award-winning artist. He creates life-size replicas of birds out of wood. Making it look easy, he demonstrates in his shop how he uses tools to slowly carve a life-like animal out of a piece of wood. He meticulously adds texture to the feathers with a pyro-engraver and uses the same care to paint on the colour.
The results are truly stunning. Larry is modest about his talents but is proud of how his creations are helping good causes. A carving of a duck that he donated to Ducks Unlimited fetched hundreds of dollars at a fundraising auction. One of his birds also raised money for the World Wildlife Fund.
Larry, Marilyn, and Vi are only three of the more than 80 artists who sell their work at the Crocus Ridge Gallery. Pieces range from pottery, glasswork, and photography, to jewelry and clothing.
With Mortlach attempting to grow in numbers and attract visitors to the town, Crocus Ridge Gallery does its part to attract tourists. It is featured in Saskatchewan Tourism’s “Rural Escapes” series, and its artists are promoted through the “Highway One Studio Tour” put on by locals in the area.
Marilyn recognizes the importance of tourism in keeping the gallery alive. While an annual Saskatoonberry Festival is helping put Mortlach on the map, it’s still too soon to predict the future of Crocus Ridge Gallery.
“We’ll see what happens. Tourism is really going to make Saskatchewan, I think. We need to start working on that more and more,” she says.
