Chalking up pronghorn fawns at the visitor centre

“They’re the only member of their genus, they’re closer related to giraffes than they are to deer or moose or anything left in the prairies and I’m drawing some fawns,” explains Dyck.

He says when pronghorn get pregnant they have a lot of viable embryos and they fight it out in utero.

“Whenever you see two twins, they’re often born as twins, that means they won the battle inside their mother. The two that are born are the two survivors. I get a big kick out of that because weird and wonderful parts of nature are something that really makes southern Alberta special.”

The piece is about 10 feet high by 15 feet wide and will take him all of today and tomorrow to finish.

That’s partly due to the size and partly the canvas.

“Working on a street surface is a bit rough so to get any detail or to get some crisp images you gotta go big. And so chalk art you’ll often see it quite a bit bigger than I might draw on paper or in other circumstances,” he says. “And it’s working with the ground, you’re almost painting you’re working the chalk into the surface and building slowly.”

Dyck hopes people will head to the visitor on Saturday, and says they can get in on the action.

He’ll be there from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“Come down and chat, see the artwork as it progresses and I’ve also got some chalk and artist squares around for people if they are feeling inspired or if they’ve seen some weird and wonderful nature on their vacation this year to get down on the street with me and make some art.”

You can find more of Dyck’s work on Instagram.

by Chris Brown

Chalking up pronghorn fawns at the visitor centre

Our Community