Kari Lehr graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1987. She focused her career on illustration for almost 20 years while living in Calgary and raising her three children. In 2004 she and her family moved to the Crowsnest Pass and it is in this inspiring mountain environment that she now pursues her own art. Kari’s work explores themes relating to womanhood and our connection to the natural world and each other.
About the Wildings Series:
I have always been fascinated by bears; they fill me with a curious sense of wonder and delight mixed with dread. Living in a mountain community, there are many opportunities to see them, and when summer rolls around and the tourists stream through our community, I am always reminded of the excitement I felt (and still feel) while on holidays in years past, with the possibility of a bear sighting always around the next bend in the road or trail. Painting bears and other Wildings allows me to both relax and have fun with paint and colour; I love to paint them as portraits with an almost human-like quality and connection to the viewer.
