LAC LA BICHE – When driving or walking past the Lac La Biche Heritage Society, many people may have noticed the recent addition of a colourful, elaborate mural highlighting scenes from Lac La Biche.
The mural features a small fishing boat on a turquoise-coloured Lac La Biche Lake, a detailed rendering of the original McArthur Place building, the community’s historic water tower and ball diamonds, pelicans, along with pastoral green hills, trees, flowers, and small animals among the scenes. The artwork was created by Miya Lamoureux and Soléne Callioux.
For the two Lac La Biche County residents, putting their artistic skills to work create the mural was a wonderful experience.
“It’s always a great pleasure to create an art piece for my community, and I’m thankful for the opportunities it brings me, but, like every project, I was nervous about how it would turn out,” Callioux said. “I have to say, it is one of my most favourite large paintings I’ve ever done.”
“I felt very honoured and proud to be able to be a part of this mural and to help capture their memories and share stories with everyone,” Lamoureux said.
In addition to the mural on the side of the Lac La Biche Heritage Society building, other work done by the two local artists can be seen around Lac La Biche. A few years ago, Lamoureux did a mural of a graffiti-styled ocean scenery for the paramedic classroom at Portage College, while Callioux painted a mural on a home in the Lac La Biche neighbourhood of Deer Meadows showing a lighthouse on the ocean.
It was after Callioux and Lamoureux worked together to paint three murals on the building housing the Lac La Biche Community Futures office, which is located across the parking lot from the Lac La Biche Heritage Society, that they were approached by executive director Stacey St. Jean to do work for the heritage society.
According to Callioux, she and Lamoureux planned the project over the winter, and got started on it this past spring.
“We asked Stacey to make us a list of things they wanted the mural to have or represent, and we put all those ideas together and made a couple different pictures,” Callioux said.
Callioux explained that the team’s final idea was “the window into our memories,” a picture inside the wall with some parts coming out of the wall. This concept featured beloved and historical monuments of Lac La Biche, such as the old baseball diamonds, the original McArthur building, water tower, and lake.
“Our community is full of wildlife, so we put all sorts of animals and critters hidden in the painting,” Callioux said.
Lamoureux enjoyed the process of coming up with ways for her and Callioux to capture the memories and beauty of the Lac La Biche community in a way that would highlight the key pieces.
“Every time we painted, there were many people, and the seniors who would come out and tell us stories and memories of some of the key elements in the painting, and hearing those stories and memories from others was one of the most rewarding things that came from this project,” Lamoureux stated.
St. Jean said with the 50th anniversary of the organization coming up this fall, the idea came about to have a special mural painted on the outside of the building.
“Every day, we get to look at the beautiful murals across from our parking lot, and I just thought it would be nice to add it to the anniversary, and add some history to our building too,” St. Jean said.
According to St. Jean, upon reaching out to Lamoureux and Callioux, the two local artists were very interested in painting the mural.
When coming up with themes for the mural, the Heritage Society wanted something that had plenty of nature in it, along with well-known landmarks that characterize the heritage of Lac La Biche.
“They added the water tower, which was quite fitting,” St. Jean stated. “It turned out wonderful.”
