Two prominent members of the Prince Albert arts community are heading east, but much of their expansive art collection won’t be going with them.
Jack and Linda Jensen are planning a move to Ontario and have partnered with the Kyla Art Group to sell off their collection before the move.
The Jensens are having a retrospective online art sale based on over 40 years of works. The art sale includes more than 200 pieces created by both Jack and Linda that are available at www.kylaartistgroup.com.
The couple always liked Toronto and have been visiting the City for many years, but the draw eastwards got even stronger with the birth of their first grandchild, Hollis, four months ago. The thought of not being around to witness her milestone events was the final push they needed to move to Toronto.
“The underlying feeling is very happy and exciting but of course then you take the other layer,” Linda said. “Obviously, we are leaving a lot friends, a lot of people that we have worked with throughout our time in various capacities in the community,” Linda said.
“Certainly Jack and I have been involved in various aspects of the arts in the community and our family was very involved, especially in the performing arts. We have wonderful memories of all of that so definitely we have had a very rich life here.”
The couple have three sons, all of whom have encouraged them to move to Ontario. The couple said they’re looking forward to eating Sunday dinner with family, but they still need to find homes for all their art.
Jack and Linda are founding members of the Kyla Art Group. The group was formed by a half dozen artists who painted together and who wanted more options for showing and selling their art than were available.
The solution was to form an art group and create their own opportunities. This led to the formation of the Kyla Art Group and the group’s annual fall art show that is now working towards its 45th year.
The art has accumulated because of the way the Kyla Art Group operates. One requirement was that all work in the Kyla fall art show could not have been in a previous Kyla fall show. This kept the Kyla artists creating new works.
It also assured the people coming to their shows that it would be something they had never seen before.
The Jensens opened the Jensen Home Gallery that served as an alternative venue for Kyla art shows and for their own art shows. Kyla also created art shows at Waskesiu, Elk Ridge and Saskatoon.
The artwork that is for sale is leftover accumulated works from their vast collection.
“We are going to have limited space in our new home relative to what we have here,” Linda said. “We have selected the artwork that we are going to have room for and we have spoken to our families and allowed them to choose artwork that they have room for.
They have been doing art for so long that there are over 200 pieces of art in their home on display. There are also a number of works still in storage.
“It is just like an art gallery where you have a permanent collection,” Linda said. “We had a huge amount of inventory with this art show, and we are really thankful to the Kyla Group for giving us the opportunity for this virtual show.
“It’s giving us the opportunity to go out and show the public the pieces that we have done recently or a long time ago.
She explained that since the online show opened the art has been selling really well. At this point, there are still a good number of pieces available.
“There is in total about 250 pieces out of which we took the pieces that we are going to take with us and then the pieces that we have given away to siblings and children and then a good number of pieces sold,” Jack said.
The show is scheduled to run into mid-April unless the art sells out before that time.
“That would be a nice problem to have before the month would be out, but we had a talk with the Kyla members and they said we will just keep it up for the remainder of March and into mid-April,” Jack said.
The move to Toronto will not happen until their home on Reed Bay in Carlton Park sells. The home is a character home and a log house which backs onto a park. The interior features a variety of wood from maple cupboards and floors to exposed log in the living room to see-joint cedar open beam ceilings in the living room and master bedroom.
“It has served us very well we raised our three children here and the neighborhood is very nice,” Jack said. “It started off with a lot of children in the neighborhood and then as they grew up there became less and less and now it’s regenerating again with toddlers to teenagers, and it’s very handy to schools and a park.”
Linda explained that if art buyers are from out of town, they can ship pieces at the buyer’s expense.
“(With) people from in town, we have just been contacting and saying do you want us to drop this off,” she said. “A lot of people want to come and pick them up themselves.”
The Jensens are also amicable to having people visit their home to see the art in person. They are cautious about COVID-19 and request anyone entering their home wear a mask. She explained that private showing is easy to control and it is nice to have the visits with people.
“So it is an online show but we are definitely open for people to call. If they need to have a private showing we have allowed that as well,” she explained.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
