George Markel. Sculptor. Woodcarver. Southey, Saskatchewan. Active 1980 – 2006.
George Markel farmed in rural Saskatchewan before moving to Regina to work. He retired and moved to Medicine Hat, Alberta where he began carving sculptures showing rural life on the farm. His favorite subjects were Horses and Pigs.
From a Bio by the Alberta Foundation for the arts:
“Markel’s whimsy and imagination also prompted him to create sculptures
with titles such as Sheeposaur in a body of work built from found materials such as jewelry,
fur, branches, buttons, beads, fabrics, and toys.
“Explaining how he came to be a folk artist, Markel wrote that one day around 1975, he was
shopping and saw a china horse sculpture with a harness on it. The price was over
$80—about $350 in 2016. “That was too much for me to pay,” he wrote. “Later on I saw a
horse just like the first one in a different store, but they had a Red River Cart with
the horse. So I asked him if he would sell them separately. He said he would. So I said,
‘O.K., I will buy the horse. I will try to make the cart.’ So, that’s the way I started
making carts and wagons, sleighs, and finally I started carving horse, cows, and bulls.”
“Markel participated in exhibitions, including the Medicine Hat Exhibition
and Stampede Visual Arts Show, shows at Canadian Art Galleries in
Calgary, and Expo ’86. His works are in the collections of the Royal Alberta Museum, the
Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Canadian Museum of History.”
Some examples of the work of George Markel are shown here.
Hay Wagon by George Markel:
George Markel. Sculptor. Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Horse Drawn Cart by George Markel:
George Markel. Alberta. Horse and cart.
