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Military Museum Murals

Home > Our community > Arts, culture & heritage > Public art > Public art collection listing > Military Museum Murals
Three murals are located on the wall of Memorial Arena.
Artist: 
Larry Hunter, Michelle Loughery
Collection: 
City of Kelowna Public Art Program

The Work

(Murals are numbered from left to right)

MURAL 1: The RCN/RCAF Commemoration Mural - The mural is a collage of machine-printed color images of Canadian ships and aircraft of the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force. The mural consists of eight 1.2m high x 2.3m wide panels of 3mm thick Dibond aluminum sheets. The color-printed vinyl coatings were adhered to the aluminum panels on a large format printer. When assembled and mounted the mural measures 4.6m high x 4.9m wide.
The aluminum panels are mounted on wood frames attached to the concrete-block wall. The images were chosen by an internal committee chaired by Tom Wolf, President, Okanagan Military Museum society, from a selection of images from the Vince Bezeau Military Library and Archives. (Okanagan Military Museum). From the top, left to right, they are: CF-118 Hornet fighter jet; F-86 Sabre day fighter jet; Lancaster bomber; HMCS Weyburn; Spitfire fighter; crew on HMCS French including a young Robert Hadgraft, President of the Okanagan Military Society 2000 -2012; crew of HMCS Fredericton; an aircrew in England; CH-149 Cormorant helicopter; HMCS Niobe; HMCS Okanagan submarine; HMCS Assiniboine with Sea King helicopters.

MURAL 2: The WW II Tri-Service Mural - The mural was hand-painted with acrylic paints. Six 2.4m high x 1.2m wide plywood panels on wooden frames are mounted on the concrete block wall to make a 4.9m high x 3.6m wide mural. The portraits are of Air Vice Marshall Gord Ockenden DFC, Brigadier Harry Angle DSO, and Leading Wren Jean Harper, each wearing uniforms of their respective branches: the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Canadian Army, and the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service of the Royal Canadian Navy. Behind the portraits is a portion of the Red Ensign (Dominion flag of Canada) which was Canada’s national flag when these people served their country.
Vice Air Marshall Ockenden rose from Airman to a Pilot Officer flying Spitfire fighters over Europe and then as 2nd in command at North American Aerospace Defense headquarters in Colorado.
Brigadier Angle was a Kelowna orchardist and Militia officer in 1939 when he volunteered to serve with the Canadian Army in World War II. He commanded his home unit, the 9th Canadian Armoured Regiment (British Columbia Dragoons) in battle in Italy and NW Europe and brought the unit home in 1946. He then served as a Brigadier as Canada’s senior officer with the United Nation’s Observer Group for the Kashmir Commission seeking to implement a cease-fire between Pakistan and India. He was killed when a UN aircraft crashed in the mountains there.
Leading Wren Harper served as a mess woman at several Royal Canadian Navy Shore Establishments during World War II. After the war she trained as a Practical Nurse and worked at coastal logging camps for many years. She also served in many community and veteran volunteer positions in the Salmon Arm area.

MURAL 3: BC Dragoon’s Centennial Mural - The mural is a hand-painted collage of images inspired by the history of the Okanagan’s British Columbia Dragoons and its predecessors. It is 5.0 m high x 4.6 m wide, consisting of eight plywood panels mounted on wood frames attached to the wall of the building. The acrylic paints are protected by a polyurethane clear coat.
The mural depicts the cap badge and four campaign medals typical of those earned by soldiers in both World Wars and more recently in Afghanistan. The illustrations across the middle depict the evolution from horse-mounted to armoured vehicle-mounted service. Three illustrations depict battles such as Vimy Ridge in 1917, and the Gothic Line in Italy in 1944. Service in domestic operations such as Operation Peregrine - the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park fire, are depicted at the bottom.

The Project

MURAL 1: The RCN/RCAF Commemoration Mural - This was the third mural to be installed. It was initiated to commemorate re-instatement of the former designations for Canada’s Naval and Air Force elements of the Canadian Armed Forces by the Canadian Government, as well as the Centennial of the Royal Canadian Navy held in 2010. The project cost just over $9,300. The Okanagan Military Museum Society raised funds from its members and other donors including the Kelowna Naval Veterans Association, 883 Kelowna Wing, RCAF Association, and Royal Canadian Legion Branch 26. A matching grant was provided by Veterans Affairs Canada’s Cenotaph/Monument Restoration Program.
The mural was dedicated October 22, 2013 by Rick Hebner, President, Kelowna Naval Veterans Association; Douglas Stanley, 883 Kelowna Wing, RCAF Association; Luke Stack, Deputy Mayor, City of Kelowna; and Veterans Affairs Canada.

MURAL 2: The WW II Tri-Service Mural - This was the first of 3 mural projects initiated by the Okanagan Military Museum Society. Vernon artist Michelle Loughery generously funded, designed, and oversaw installation of the mural. It was dedicated on May 5, 2002 by Bishop Fraser Berry in the presence of Mayor Walter Gray, Councillor Barrie Clark, Ms. Jean Harper, members of the families related to Gord Ockenden and Harry Angle, Michelle Loughery, veterans from the Royal Canadian Legion, and members of the Korean Veterans Association of Canada, RCAF Association, the BC Dragoons, and the BCD Whizzbang Association.

MURAL 3: BC Dragoon’s Centennial Mural - The mural was the second of the mural projects. A joint project of the BC Dragoons Whizzbang Association, the Kelowna Museums Society, the Okanagan Military Museum Society, the City of Kelowna, and the British Columbia Dragoons, it was initiated in January 2010. It was funded by a grant from the City of Kelowna’s Community Festivals, Events, and Projects Program, BCD Whizzbang Association, the BCD Regimental Council Society, the Okanagan Military Museum Society, Kelowna-Veendam Sister-City Association, and Department of Veteran Affairs Canada.
An open competition in August 2010 attracted submissions from several Okanagan artists vying for the $1,000.00 commission. The adjudication committee consisting of representatives of the contributing organizations, awarded the commission to Larry Hunter and the mural was dedicated in May 2011. Representatives from the Regiment, City of Kelowna, provincial and federal governments, and the Okanagan Military Museum, as well as many veterans attended the unveiling. The project cost just over $13,000.00.

The Artist

MURAL 2: The WW II Tri-Service Mural - Michelle Loughery is a BC-born artist, organizer and educator dedicated to working with inter-generational groups on community art projects such as heritage murals to articulate a community’s shared history and culture. She has completed projects in Sparwood, BC and Vernon, BC among other communities, and has created privately and commercially commissioned sculpture and watercolor or acrylic paintings in Japan, Canada and the United States. She specializes in large-format art projects.

MURAL 3: BC Dragoon’s Centennial Mural - Larry Hunter of Penticton is a freelance artist/designer who trained at the Vancouver School of Art. He has created illustrations for various clients both commercial and cultural, and his murals can be found throughout the Okanagan and beyond. For this project Larry studied photographs at the museum before composing the mural, which he painted in sections in a studio at the Shatford Art Center in Penticton.

Viewing

Three murals are located on the wall of Memorial Arena adjacent to the entrance to the Okanagan Military Museum.