By Charles Lefebvre

Mural tells story of brick industry in Redcliff

Jul 4, 2019 | 5:36 PM

REDCLIFF, AB — A prominent artist in Medicine Hat is working on a mural to help tell the story of the brick making industry in the region.

James Marshall has been working with Malcolm Sissons, the vice-president of I-XL Limited, and Al Diller, a former superintendent at the Redcliff Brick Plant, to create a mural on the site of the former plant on Mitchell Street in the town.

The mural will serve as a backdrop for a stage that has been built in the park. It is inspired by three photographs taken of the plant in the 1950s.

“Redcliff had three pretty major brick plants going at one time, and this mural in particular is meant to commemorate the brick industry in Redcliff, which was so prominent for so many years,” said Sissons, whose family owned the plant.

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Before embarking on his career as an artist, Marshall worked at I-XL in their marketing department, where he fell in love with making murals

“Just seeing that amount of clay was interesting, and I thought you could stack it up and carve it,” he said.

“We would be at architect’s conferences, national conferences, and I’d put an easel up in our display and stack some bricks on it, and carve them during the conference. The architects got pretty enthused, so I knew there was a business.”

Sissons approached Marshall about the Redcliff project. They’ve been putting the mural together since June 10, working whenever they can.

They both note the project can be very labour intensive.

“Set up a wall, carve it, colour it, take it down, load a kiln, take them out of the kiln, put them in boxes, so you’re picking them up a lot,” said Marshall.

“They’re all numbered, so they arrive on site here in boxes, but it’s like a bit of a jigsaw puzzle sometimes to put them together,” said Sissons.

Marshall’s work can be seen throughout Medicine Hat and Redcliff, including at Redcliff Town Hall, the Veiner Centre and Riverside Veterans Memorial Park.

He adds work has also appeared in Canada and England.

Now 80, Marshall is still keeping busy with brick murals. Once the Redcliff mural project is completed, he has others to complete, including a piece for Pheasant’s Forever Park in Elkwater and a mural for the Ronald McDonald House in Medicine Hat.

After the Ronald McDonald House mural is complete, Marshall says he will likely retire from making brick murals.

“It will take a really interesting one to draw me out after that,” he said.

Marshall adds, “Murals take up a great deal of time. They consume your life. There’s a lot of work involved, a lot of time spent. I want to get on to other things, more drawing and painting.”

Marshall says he is proud of all the murals that he has been able to complete in Medicine Hat and the region.

“The great thing is that they do last a long time, and it’s been terrific,” he said.

The Redcliff mural is expected to be finished later in July.