It is an honour to be part of the historical events and remarkable people depicted by our bronzes. How many other people get to make something that is going to be around for thousands of years?
Don Begg of Cochrane is an internationally respected, award-winning bronze sculptor known for his detailed and life-like works. He has dedicated his art to preserving, honouring and showcasing the human spirit by creating life-sized and larger-than-life bronze figures that capture historical moments and daily life on the Prairies. His body of work spans more than half a century and can be viewed throughout North America, South America, Europe and Australia.
Donald John Begg was born on July 7, 1945, in Calgary to Hamish and Amy Begg. The family lived on the historic Glenfinnan Ranch in the Wildcat Hills west of Cochrane. Don was the third child of four.
Don was an independent child. He would leave the ranch on a saddle horse in the morning and not return until suppertime. He was curious, too, a regular sponge. He paid daily visits to the horsemen at the ranches around Glenfinnan, learned everything he could about pedigreed horses and their training, and won many trophies in the process.
After high school, Don trained many legendary cutting horses until Alberta’s burgeoning petroleum industry in the 1960s lured him into the oilpatch. He learned to manufacture oilfield equipment in the boilermaker/welder program at SAIT in nearby Calgary and was quickly recruited by a fabrication shop.
In 1962, Don and a friend were bringing in the hay crop at Glenfinnan Ranch, using a team of horses to pull the bundle rack because the tractor had broken down. As the men threw stooks onto the rack, a photographer captured the pastoral scene on film and promised them prints as payment. The photographer was Doug Stephens, regarded by many as the “first Canadian artist to put western bronzes into the realm of critical art.” When Don visited Doug’s summer cottage at Waiparous to pick up the prints, he met Doug’s daughter Shirley, and the rest is history. Don and Shirley were married in 1968, welcoming daughter Karen the following year.
On a trip to California to have one of Doug’s sculptures cast into bronze, Doug and Don visited the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, home to Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker, among other masterpieces. Having never visited an art museum before, ever-curious Don had multiple questions, and Doug had the answers. Don was hooked. He had found his calling.
When Doug grew weary of having to cast his bronzes outside Canada, he and Don agreed on the need for a local operation. In 1970, Don and Shirley established Studio West Foundry, the first fine art bronze foundry in Western Canada. Don applied his oilpatch knowledge to build the foundry’s equipment to handle molten bronze: everything from the melting furnace, dewaxing furnace and cranes to hand tools, such as tongs.
By 1972, they moved their operation to the present location in Cochrane, which has expanded three times since and today includes an art gallery showcasing prominent Canadian sculptors.
After Doug passed in 1972, many professional artists sought out Studio West’s casting services. Meanwhile, Don continued to study bronze casting and sculpture, first at Red Deer College and then at the American Foundry Society in California. Next, he specialized in the art of monumental sculpture, studying with Bruce Hoheb in New York and interning with Franco Vianello in California and mentor John Weaver of Edmonton. But he didn't stop there.
Don says there are two paths to a successful art practice: learning constantly and working with great artists. That’s why he is a long-time member of the American Foundry Society and the National Sculpture Society. Both organizations provide professional upgrading to members, so they may learn new skills and methods, share and exchange ideas and techniques with fellow artists, and stoke the fires of creativity.
Don and Shirley have worked side by side since they built the foundry. Their daughter Karen is now a professional artist and has worked in virtually every aspect of the foundry and gallery. She is the third generation to contribute to the family business.
Bronze statues can last for thousands of years. Just as ancient civilizations did, Don uses the 3,000-year-old “lost wax” casting method in which he creates a duplicate bronze sculpture from an original model. The method allows for intricate details, whether the sculpture is miniature, life-sized or monumental. The most time-consuming part of the process is creating the original model. “It’s extraordinarily important to get every detail right,” says Don. “We won’t be here in the ages to come to make excuses.”
Don has devoted much of his work to celebrating Albertans. His sculptures reside in 26 communities across the province. Many pieces commemorate famous people and memorable historical events, such as Mayerthorpe’s Fallen Four police officers tragically killed in 2005, and Peace River’s junior hockey coach Darcy Haugan, a victim of the Humboldt bus crash in 2018.
Don is perhaps most proud of the works that commemorate unsung heroes, such as pioneering women, nurses, teachers, families, Indigenous and Métis Peoples, soldiers, and community builders. For these tributes, he makes a conscious effort not to create a portrait of any one person. That way, “anyone can relate to the work. It could be your mother or grandmother or sister, whoever,” says Don.
Not all of Don’s sculptures represent people. His depictions of animals, particularly horses, show more than a deep understanding of how they look in real life: he captures how they behave and how they move. Many private commissions have come Don’s way as a result.
Don and Shirley’s monuments can be found across North America, literally from coast to coast to coast to coast: from Scheldt, BC, to Gagetown, NB, and from Tuktoyaktuk, NT, to Florida, as well as international installations. “We have a dedicated crew of six that help us. It takes a little help to place 260 monuments around the world,” says Don. His limited-edition sculptures have found homes in private, corporate and museum art collections on four continents and even in royal collections.
On her 1992 visit to Calgary, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II met with the Beggs and unveiled their sculpture of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) founder Brigadier General Andrew Hamilton Gault at the Museum of the Regiments. Her Majesty was taken with her official event gift – a two-foot maquette of the statue – which now resides in The Royal Collection.
One of the Beggs’ most recent sculptures formed the centrepiece of Operation CALVADOS, the two-week military operation in 2024 that commemorated the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Their eight-foot-tall bronze soldier represents the Regina Rifle Regiment, who were among the first Canadians to storm Juno Beach on June 6, 1944. The riflemen advanced further inland than any other Allied unit within the first 24 hours of the invasion, all the way to Bretteville, France, where the Regina Rifleman statue now stands.
The bronze was unveiled by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal in her capacity as the colonel-in-chief of the Royal Regina Rifles. Like Queen Elizabeth II, she added a maquette of the sculpture to her art collection.
After the unveiling, Don and Shirley joined Operation CALVADOS to retrace the journey of the Regina Riflemen from Juno Beach, through France, Belgium and into the Netherlands as they liberated towns and villages from Nazi occupation.
For 54 years and counting, Don has gladly guided new and emerging Canadian artists through the artistic process of working with bronze from conception to completion. He also teaches them how to navigate the often-daunting requirements put upon community and public art projects.
Don and Shirley have received the internationally prestigious Diploma de Merito for excellence in bronze sculpture from the University dell Arti in Parma, Italy. Their work has also received awards and recognition throughout North America, including from the Art Horizons International Art Competition, Artitudes International Art Competition, Florida Society of Fine Arts International Art Competition, Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, Spokane Western Art Show, Montana’s Western Heritage Artists’ Annual Art Show, Calgary’s Arts Network, and Calgary Exhibition and Stampede Western Art Show. Don has also received international juried art prizes including the Lord Stanley’s Gift Monument Project and the Canada Building Trades Monument Project.
Don and Shirley live in the same cottage in Waiparous where they first met and have no plans to retire. “I cannot imagine a better occupation. When I get up every morning, I’m excited to get to the studio,” says Don. “It has been a great privilege to be a foundryman and sculptor.”