| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: |
Alfred C. Leighton is an internationally celebrated oil and watercolour painter. Today, Leighton’s paintings hang in public and private galleries across Canada and Europe. Leighton showed a great propensity for drawing and sketching as a young man. With the encouragement of his father, he studied Architecture at the Bradssey Institute, Hasting’s Municipal School of Art. When the First World War broke out, Leighton enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps at the age of 17. During a training flight in 1918, Leighton’s aircraft crashed, plaguing him with injuries that would affect him for his entire life. After the conclusion of WWI, Leighton started to paint landscape scenes that quickly began to gain recognition. In 1924, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CRP) hired Leighton to capture the beauty of the western Canadian landscape and the Great Canadian Rockies. Leighton’s talent for capturing the splendor, majesty, and grandeur of Rocky Mountains was immediately apparent. Leighton worked solely for the CPR until 1929, when he became the Art Director of the Alberta College of Art, in Calgary. In 1930, Leighton met his future wife, Barbara Harvey, who came to the College to study. In the early 1930’s, Leighton founded the Alberta Society of Artists and became a founding member of the Banff School of Fine Arts (The Banff Centre). In 1938, Leighton resigned from his position as Art Director and he and his wife travelled to British Columbia, Canada. In the 50’s and 60’s, the Leighton’s travelled to England a couple of times to paint and rest. During this time, they also started the construction their home in the Millarville, Alberta area. Unfortunately, Leighton’s health deteriorated significantly, and he passed away in May of 1965 at the age of 64. In 1974, Barbara Leighton opened The Leighton Art Centre, which features many pieces from her late husband’s collection and encourages young and old alike to embrace their artistic side. Today, the Leighton Art Centre is a well-respected institution that encourages creativity and art.
|