The doors of St. Mary and St. George Anglican Church open Thursday on the 11-day juried exhibition and sale of more than 40 art works valued in excess of $70,000.

Drawn from the inventories of artists and Mountain Galleries, the event offers collectors a chance to buy paintings, water colours, prints, sculpture, pottery and quilts at reasonable prices, said Wendy Wacko, curator and organizer of the event.

The owner of Mountain Galleries, Wacko started the auction 12 years ago to honour the memory of her mother, Betty, and the help she received from the parish of St. Mary and St George and the people of Jasper.

“When my mother was ill and during her last month, we brought her to Jasper. Without asking, the church was there for us. When she needed 24-hour care during the last weeks of her life, they were there.”

Wacko said her mother asked that she do something to help the church,  “and I think she just wanted me to write a big fact cheque from her estate and a thank you note, but I told her I would do better than that. 

“I had an idea for a silent art auction, that I would do for as long as I could,” said Wacko, who has been selling art in Jasper since 1977.

The value of the auction collection is usually around $30-50,000. This year, because of major works by two artists, Thierfelder and Doris McCarthy, Wacko estimates the total value of the works in the auction is around $70,000.

Hand-made quilts by Sheila Vuksanovich, original works and private edition prints by Wacko, Jim Vest, Rod Prouse, John Jackson, Sandy Robinson, Gail Johnson, Frank Grisdale, and Diane Way will also be on sale.

There are reserve bids, but she said that they “are very low. Prints, and other works on paper, usually go for good prices. The public has been generous in past, and some pieces have sold for above retail.”

The silent auction has raised as much as $14,000 for the church, and gives the artists who donate works a tax write-off, Wacko said.

“The whole parish chips in. The church is open eight hours a day through the sale, and everyone helps. It’s a lot of fun and it’s growing.”