Sixty feet above the ground artist Zoë Gelfant applies a fresh coat of orange paint onto the side of a silo. Her massive circular mural dominates the vista along Chemin Brook in Hinchinbrooke, Quebec. She can only see the few feet to the right and left of where her lift is and has to trust the artwork is coming together as planned. “It’s a little nerve-racking when you’re painting because you’re putting in all this work and you hope it’s right,” she told CTV. “But at the same time it’s such a welcome surprise at the end workday when you get to the ground and see it.” She joked that’s a bigger concern for her than any fear of heights. She’s working on the last of six silo murals in the MRC Haut St-Laurent, about 45 minutes southwest of Montreal. “The hardest part of the process was just getting here and not having really realized just how big it was going to be,” she said. The project took her five weeks of painting, sometimes for 12 hours per day. On top of a punishing schedule, she also had to consider the logistics of painting a concrete silo including dealing with cement, metal and obstacles. “There’s the rings that go around, and there’s the chute and the ladder that had to be dealt with. It’s all these physical challenges but I love kind of being a monkey,” she said. The project is part of an art grant from the provincial government. The total cost of the project is $1,373,352. Quebec’s Municipal Affairs office is kicking in $1,144,460 and the MRC is giving $228,892. Nancy Brunelle is the MRC’s cultural coordinator and says the hope is the works will generate tourism in the region known more for agriculture than art. “We really integrated elements from the family farms as well as local history,” she said. At Ferme Sylvain et Pascal Vincent in Franklin the business’ oldest tractor is depicted alongside apples from the nearby orchards. At Thornbrae Farms in Howick a massive bird towers over the landscape. Next summer, three more silos will be added before funding runs out in 2027. As the works come together they are already garnering attention. “There were people on bikes. People in their trucks honk at us. It’s been really nice. They’re cheering us on.”
