For 100 Mile House artist, Neil Pinkett, the creation of the Halcro-Bergen mural that adorns the front wall of the 100 Mile Curling Club was a challenge.
The 2010 Olympic Legacy-funded mural represents winter Olympic activities enjoyed throughout the South Cariboo region. Pinkett said the mural society gave him a long list of sports they wanted to see represented in the mural and some general guidelines on how to come up with the concepts they were looking for.
He was not allowed to use the Olympic rings but needed to echo it in the overall design. He said he was allowed to use the colours, however.
“It’s quite unlike anything else I usually would do,” he said. “It was complicated by the fact that this all happened in October, so it was actually getting quite cold out.”
Other issues came along as the mural evolved.
Gabe Bergen, a former 100 Mile House resident and Olympic medal winner for rowing was one of the official torchbearers for the 2010 games and is featured in the mural.
When Pinkett painted the mural there was obviously no photo available of Bergen as a torchbearer. The idea was to add his image the following summer.
“I chose to paint an entire mural that would look complete but leave a space for him to go over the top,” Pinkett said. That way there would not be a gap in the mural.
Bergen and his family moved to 100 Mile in 1986 when he was four years old. He attended Mile 108 Elementary School from kindergarten to Grade 7 and then the family went to Mexico for a year, where his parents, Bob and Marilyn, who were both teachers, taught the boys.
Then Gabe went to 100 Mile House Junior Secondary for Grade 9 and graduated from Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School in 2000.
Marilyn said her son’s interest in sports developed at an early age, as he participated in community soccer, hockey, school sports and the 100 Mile Nordics cross-country ski club. She added he benefited greatly from the help and support of his volunteer coaches.
“Also as a family, we have always encouraged Gabe and his brothers to be actively involved in healthy sporting pursuits for the development of their physical fitness and the joy of being part of a team.”
His pride in being from 100 Mile was never more obvious than it was when the Canadian men’s eight crew was interviewed by Brian Williams on CTV after the men out-rowed Great Britain in the last 250 metres in the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games to capture the silver medals.
While his crew mates spoke during the interview, Gabe was quiet and unassuming, but just before the interview came to an end, he held his medal up and shouted, “100 Mile!”
Pinkett said the icing on the cake came after he added Bergen’s likeness to the composition. “His mother got in touch with me and said I really caught his likeness,” he said. “I was really pleased about that. That was great to hear because portraiture is not my usual thing - I don’t paint a lot of people normally.”
Also featured on the mural are Stan and Anne Halcro, both well-known inspirations in the community.
Stan Halcro’s amazing spirit and community involvement contributed to the growth of 100 Mile House. He coached the famous Lumbermen’s Senior B fastball team, and actively supported many community clubs, including the Arena ‘70 group, which helped build the original arena.
Stan and his Lumbermen became almost legendary in the area with the arena named after Stan and a ballpark named after the team.
Anne Halcro was a long-time member of the curling community and was known as a skilled and dedicated curler.
When Pinkett came up with the initial design the mural society asked that curling be the centre point of the image as the mural was being painted on the wall of the curling club.
“At the time I just painted a generic curler lady but in the meantime, Stan Halcro’s wife passed away that winter and the curling club asked if I would put her face on the curler in the middle,” he said. “I also added that afterwards - so the mural changed a couple of times.”
Painting walls when the temperature is less than 10 degrees is not generally encouraged, said Pinkett. They hung insulated tarps hung up around the edge of the overhang and a propane flame thrower to warm up the space.
“When I started work I had to turn on the flame thrower first to raise the temperature. Most days that was fairly straightforward forward but if the wind was blowing you could lose all the heat in seconds,” he laughed.
Pinkett said this was the biggest mural he ever painted and probably the most complicated and challenging. “I think I learned a lot about painting murals, kind of on the go there. I was discovering things but also working outside of what I normally do, which is more like landscapes and lake scenes and stuff on canvas. So it was is kind of an exploration more of what I might be capable of, which was quite interesting.”
