Saskatoon woman creating sculptures out of snow from the winter storm

While the city’s snow graders are hard at work removing snow from neighborhoods streets, one Saskatoon woman is getting creative with snow removal in her backyard.

Patricia Leguen has been a sculptor for over 40 years, travelling all over the world for thousands of people to see her work at international competitions. But while she enjoys showcasing her work for others, nothing beats fashioning frosty pieces of art for herself at home.

“It’s nice to be by myself with no distractions, I can work at my own pace, stop when I want,” Leguen told CTV News.

After returning to Saskatoon from the holidays, Leguen saw high amounts of snow in her backyard from the storm and knew there was only one thing to do, build a snow sculpture.

“So I shoveled everything in my plastic forms that I use for sand sculpting and I packed all this snow to eight feet high,” she said.

Leguen created a sculpture of a mother holding a child, both looking up to the sky. She started creating it by looking at a miniature sculpture, in total it took her more than 10 hours to make. While the sculpture stands tall on her deck, she wasn’t quite finished creating.

“We have so much snow here that I have to do something with it and with the fifth blizzard, there’s so much. I even started carving out another one yesterday,” Leguen said.

Leguen says her Danish friend’s son loves octopuses and asked if she could create one for him in the snow. While she’s not quite done, she was able to create a full head and tentacles on the ground in two hours on Wednesday.

Leguen was born in France and studied fine arts at the University of Saskatchewan from 1979 to 1981. She has created unique snow, ice and sand sculptures for competition all around the world including in China, Italy, France, Japan and more.

“Every sculpture is always a challenge because you never know what's gonna happen, what the temperature will be, if it’s gonna be cold, warm or what,” she said.

Leguen never makes a design more than once. She’s even taught the kids in her neighborhood how to get inventive.

Leguin will be carving at Nutrien Wintershine and giving snow sculpting workshops in February for anyone else who wants to get their hands cold and creative while the snow is still on the ground.