Brisco artist gets retrospective at Pynelogs

By Steve Hubrecht

Brisco resident Lynne Grillmair lived her life in the open air, so it only makes sense that she liked to paint that way too.

Lynne spent plenty of time outdoors professionally — she spent several decades at Canadian Mountain Holiday’s (CMH)’s famous Bugaboo Lodge, working as chef and manager (where she met her husband Leo, one of CMH’s founders). She also spent a lot of her spare time outdoors too, hiking, skiing and painting in the mountains.

Throughout her heliski industry career Lynne made art when she wasn’t working. When the Grillmairs retired in the early 1990s, Lynne dedicated herself to art full time, churning out works in a variety of different styles and at a considerable clip.

Next month the Pynelogs Cultural Centre will host a retrospective celebrating Lynne’s art over her lifetime, with the entire gallery dedicated to showing about 80 of her pieces.

“She has a huge body of work,” said close friend Anne Jardine. “If you go into her house, the whole upstairs, the loft, is full of paintings, the basement is stacked with paintings, and all the walls on the main floor are full of paintings. The house looks like an art gallery.”

Many of Lynne’s works are acrylic paintings, but she also did watercolours and mixed media pieces, as well as photography. She also illustrated a book on Indigenous legends and creation stories. There were plenty of landscapes, but she also focused on themes of music, dance, and much more.

“She loved to go into the backcountry and paint right there, on site, sometimes in really remote spots. En plein air,” said Jardine.

“She also loved more creative, abstract art. She would become fascinated and make series, returning to an idea or a theme again and again. It was almost like each new piece in a given theme would spark more ideas. And those ideas would result in new pieces. And then those pieces would spark even more ideas.”

For instance, one of Lynne’s series focuses on ice and glaciers, particularly those in the Bugaboos.

“She saw firsthand the processes the water goes through, and the transformation of a glacier into creeks and streams. She saw the glacier themselves transform over many years,” said Jardine.

Realistic reflection
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Another series was inspired by modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe’s Southwestern skull paintings. Lynne instead painted cattle skulls that she came across while walking the valley’s benchlands.

“It made her think about the process of raising and eating beef, and she reflected that in her work,” said Jardine.

The pieces on display in Pynelogs will be grouped into nine overarching themes: land; ice; music; dance; ancient; skulls; flowers; glass; and still life.

Such a diverse range of styles and themes are reflective of their creator, according to those who know Lynne well.

“She is a really lovely person – outgoing, cheerful, a wonderful conversationalist, and she has so many interests,” said Jardine. “She plays piano, she sings in the Valley Voices choir, she is very active, she hikes, she downhill skis, she nordic skis.”

Lynne’s neighbour Kate Bennett added that Lynne also “loves reading and entertaining. She loves having people over for a meal. Every Sunday in the winters we get together to play Scrabble and talk about books and music. She also loves to go to the opera in Golden.”

Bennett echoed Jardine’s sentiment about how varied Lynne’s art is, noting “she is always changing her work. A lot of it is very clever and literary. It’s quite amazing.”

The exhibition runs from Saturday, March 1 until Saturday, March 29 at Pynelogs. An artist reception for Lynne will be held on March 1 from 2 to 5 p.m. There will be food and beverages for sale and a chance to talk with Lynne.