By Michael Joel-Hansen

In the snow

Snow sculptures going up as Winter Festival gets underway

Feb 11, 2019 | 6:01 PM

Snow sculptures are going up around the city this week and events for the 2019 Prince Albert Winter Festival kick off.

The event officially got this weekend and will be continuing until Feb. 24 with a variety of events. Part of the festivities include the building of snow sculptures.

Three in total are being built, and are going up near the Gateway Mall, at the Alfred Jenkins Fieldhouse and near Prince Albert Tourism.

The pieces are the work of Pinehouse-based artist Gary Dean Natomagan. Early Monday morning the artist was hard at work on his sculpture near the Gateway Mall.

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Natomagan told paNOW it can take some time to finish one of his works.

“Probably four hours at the most, depends on the detail,” he said.

The piece he was working on in front of the Gateway Mall was of two dogs. Originally he had plans to have one of the dogs sitting, but Natomagan had to make some changes and both animals were being done standing up.

Natomagan explained he had some different plans for his next sculpture.

“The other one I’ll be adding a rider, with three dogs and a sled,” he said.

While Natomagan was crafting the art on his own, he was not without help. He was joined at the mall by two of his cousins who helped him by clearing away the snow he knocked off the block.

They were at the ready passing him tools.

Natomagan has been creating works from blocks of snow for 15 years. He got his start at the winter festival when there were snow sculpture competitions, where Natomagan enjoyed quite a bit of success.

“I won seven times in a row,” he said.

Before carving one of his pieces, Natomagan will sketch out a plan, but he said he doesn’t always follow what he writes down.

“It’s just up here,” he said, pointing to his head.

Gary Dean Natomagan works on his sculpture for the 2019 Prince Albert Winter Festival in front of the Gateway Mall. (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

The festival continues Monday night with XFM co-host and local comedian Kelly Taylor headlining a comedy night at The Rock and Iron Sports Bar.

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn