Saskatchewan artist Marilyn Malo began painting in the 1970s and has become most well known for her watercolours. She did bring a few watercolours with her for the Saskatchewan Art on Canvas and Cloth exhibit at the Key Gallery but most of her pieces in the show are acrylic, which Malo says she enjoys working with.

“Acrylic is more exciting (than watercolour) because the colours are much stronger. I don’t dilute the colours, I use them pretty well straight out of the tube or the jar and I can just scoop it up with my palette knife and start slashing it on the canvas,” she said. “It goes very quickly and you can be bold. It’s fun. I call it playing with acrylics.”

While Malo is the canvas part of the show, her daughter, Lori Malo Tourscher, is the cloth element, making art on quilts. This is the first joint show for the two.

“It’s wonderful to do a show together. When it’s your own family, your own daughter, you’re just so proud of what they do,” Malo said. “And it’s really nice as she uses lots of my artwork and then does her interpretation of it on the quilts. There are several here that are paintings I have done and then she has used fabric to replicate them.”

Each piece Malo has brought to Cranbrook has a building in it and all are painted from actual structures.

“There’s landscape involved with the buildings but every painting had to have a building,” she said. “I’ve always done buildings. Perspective in buildings came fairly easily to me when I first started painting and I love old buildings.”

All of the pieces in the exhibit are on sale and it will remain on display until Monday, May 10. The show can be viewed at the Key Gallery at the Key City Theatre from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and on Saturdays between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.