CARLYLE - Peggy Winmill is a long-time resident of southeast Saskatchewan and is well-known for her pencil and watercolor pencil sketches.
Now 77 years old, Peggy married Ken Anderson, a now-retired auctioneer, in 1992. They moved from the farm to Carlyle in 1993 when they purchased 52 acres of land from Tom and Vera Johnston.
They subdivided five acres of that Town of Carlyle property into seven lots and in 1999 had Gilles Matthewson build them the first home on what is now known as Anderson Place. They moved into Lions Pride Estates in 2012, where they still reside.
Winmill was born and raised around Floral, Saskatchewan, the home of hockey legend Gordie Howe. Her and then-husband Bob Hawman operated a greenhouse on Main Street Arcola for many years in the 1970s and 1980s. Later on, for six years, she worked the evening shift at the front desk of the Skyline Motor Inn.
Back then, the Skyline was booming with the rooms full of seismic crews and oilfield workers. There was music and dancing every Friday and Saturday night.
Since her childhood, Peggy has enjoyed pencil drawing and is a self-taught artist. She has made it a lifelong hobby. Winmill has dabbled in oil based paintings but prefers pencil and watercolor pencil sketching. She has a one-room studio in her Carlyle residence but less than 10 years ago, was a regular summer resident at the Artist Colony Cabins located just east of the chalet at Moose Mountain Provincial Park.
In addition to sketching, Winmill’s pastimes include fishing and gardening.
Winmill sketches a wide variety of subjects, including landscapes, buildings, airplanes and animals. Lately, she has developed her talents and has a penchant for sketching personal portraits. She showed us some of her recent sketches which were impressive.
Howe, Princess Diana, George Jones and Elvis Presley were some of those shown. We were also treated to an older sketch of longtime Carlyle resident George Coffey, looking resplendent with his foot-long beard.
Winmill was the cover artist of the 2014 Blacktop to Black Gold history book for Carlyle and District. She also proudly showed us a front-page article from the Moose Mountain Advertiser dated March 1992. The headline read From a Doodler to an Artist and was written by Jacquie McCarron. In the 1980s and 1990s, her sketches were also sold at the annual Carlyle Chamber of Commerce Art Auctions.
Winmill has not been as active sketching during the pandemic but does plan on making a comeback of sorts this summer.
“Despite our ages, Ken and I are enjoying relatively good health and I look forward to sketching again. I find portraits very interesting, and they require my complete concentration. I absolutely love the challenge and making many families and friends happy.”
