[MonctonRad]

Alex Colville's tiny studio recreated in his former Sackville home
Studio will help students learn the importance of having their 'own creative space'
By Jonna Brewer, Posted: Oct 24, 2017 7:19 PM AT Last Updated: Oct 24, 2017 7:19 PM AT
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br...ouse-1.4369451

Alex Colville and his wife, Rhoda, bought the house in 1949, fixed it up a little and moved in the following year. They stayed for the next 22 years and raised their four children there.

Mount Allison purchased the house in 1981. It served as a student residence. Then in 2009, the university opened it up to the public as a summer interpretive centre.

"When Alex Colville died in 2013, they (the family) didn't want to separate or disperse his studio," Kelly said of the family. "It just felt wrong to them.

"So they approached Mount Allison asking if we'd be interested, and we thought it would be a perfect fit for the house."

In Sackville this week, Kelly went to a door off the main room, unlocked it and stepped inside the room where Colville's studio has been recreated.

For Colville admirers, it's almost overwhelming to be standing in the creative space that feels like he just left.

His easel and chair are placed just so, the cupboard doors are open to reveal shelves crammed with small pots of paints and brushes, speckles of paint around the easel and work table, a roll of paper towel at one end to wipe his hands, and the lab coat he wore hanging on the original hanger on the door.

"By the time he reached mid-career and certainly by the time he was in the Wolfville studio, he was an artist with an international reputation," Kelly said.

The Colville studio will be open to the public on Friday, from 1 to 7 p.m. Admission is free. The studio will reopen for the public again next summer.