Abstracts Past and Present is a show featuring artwork by three artists from the same family. Former Creston resident Jennifer Huscroft’s work will be displayed alongside that of her grandmother, Chris Herchmer, and great-aunt, Jeannette Ford, at the Creston and District Public Library through April 16.
Herchmer taught Huscroft to paint with oils when she was nine and after her grandmother passed away three years later, she continued to learn from her mother, Carol Huscroft.
“Later, both my mother and I took classes from Doreen Tate,” said Huscroft. “I am part of the Creston Art Club, and have been since I was young. I have taken many workshops through them and enjoy being a part of such a supportive, talented group.”
Last spring, Huscroft attended the Alberta College of Art and Design, where she took her first year of painting and art history, returning to take an amazing workshop with Terry Isaac. She paints portraits and enjoys working with live models, but her main passion is abstracts.
“I enjoy the freedom of painting them and the ability to explore the different textures and possibility of the paints,” she said.
Huscroft’s grandmother was an internationally selling painter. Herchmer’s focus was mostly on wildlife and western painting, and had the Cabin Gallery at the Banff Spring Hotel with Ford. She was one of the founding members of the Creston Valley United Artists Guild.
Ford’s greatest passion was painting, which she studied at the Banff School of Fine Art under Prof. Harry Wolfarth and in 1975 graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in fine art. An avid member of Banff community art classes, she would travel around the province teaching her own art class. Perhaps her greatest joy was passing on and teaching painting to her granddaughter, Christine.
Huscroft appreciates the opportunity to share the library’s walls with two family members whose work she admires.
“It's amazing to be able to be in a show with work from two of the amazingly talented women who inspired me to paint,” she said.