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Winston Atwood Bronnum

The Godfather of Canadian Art-Naturalist Sculptor

Born in New Denmark, March 1,1929, youngest son of a carpenter Carl and Sena (Larsen) Bronnum from Danish pioneer settlement commissioned to clear land and work on the railroad (East of the Salmonhurst River formerly known as Hellerup, Victoria County of New Brunswick) Winston was a sibling to brother Max and 4 sisters Barbara, Glenna, Patsy and Carol Bronnum

Winston pursued early years whittling horses and art into his wooden desk tops before leaving grade 3 and retreating to the woods on the family farm. Eventually upgrading his pen knife to include a set of quality treasured wood carving chisels, he carved out a set of book ends for his youngest sister Carol who loved to read. Horse heads shrouded by horse shoes from dried spent most of his early whittling skills on horse head book ends as his sister loved to read and deer hoof lamps from dried kilning were Winston favorite models. An early year youth project in learning to fly was scorned by his mother Sena while attempting to launch himself off the roof of the chicken coup in a self made air vessel before later in life venturing to get a pilots license. Working on bridges and hydro damns the self-taught apprentice advanced from little models of natural that progressed to life size reinforced in steel re-bar and wire meshed concrete.

During a 1950’s hardship a fire which burnt Winston’s Fredericton studio to the ground, along with the collectable wood models, led the entrepreneur back to the Foley brook farm of New Denmark where he and his dad, Carl Bronnum yielded a bumper year in potato growing beneath the train trestle. Probably rooted the display of a large potato that founds it's way into a monumental road side stand in of Maugerville NB.http://www.bigthings.ca/newbruns/pictures/spud1.jpg<

Just turning in his twenties in 1949, as joke, Winston carved a wooden cartoon character of a boney horse as a gift to the late Eddie Taylor of Winfield Stables but 12 years later local lumberjack from Drummond NB, Ron Turcotte had also left the rural in search of construction work in Ontario. Securing work as a hot walker for Winfield Stables an unexpected surprise winning the Kentucky Derby with a stout but high spirited race horse, Northern Dancer, a cartoon stature of a boney yet spirited race horse was erected in full scale concrete and rebar on a pedestal appeared on the sky light of the Trans Canada Highway. Blowhard. Working the new beginning from an rustic cabin and gradually expanding an outdoor studio calling it Animaland, A designated rest station for tourism expanded to a strip mall comfort zone piloting a road side attraction sculptured nature park beside the old route 114 Trans Canada Highway. A first of it's kind and a full scale Canadian moose (Cow Bay Moose) was erected for Silver Sands Beach, Nova Scotia from the Penobsquis studio in the Spring of 1959.

Intrigued by the animated characters of Walt Disney, Micky Mouse and Goofy, a Barnum and Baily ticket booth an unmanned airplane found lodged at his uncle Viggos' Mew Denmark sporting camp <>http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19601116&id=HlEpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UWoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4440,1424994<> missing 1 1/2 years from the local Loring Air Force base attracted curiosity of the fisherman's folklore and captured the imagination of a young artist's sculptures between a Shediac lobster and an "Old Blow Hard" racehorse. Rubber necking the old Trans Canada highway encouraging weary travelers and their toddlers to a photo op and tour the comfort station observing the Arts and Crafts Gift shop essentially become a landmark for New Brunswick tourism and the bench mark in Canadian Moose_in_the_Citymarketing. Likely the grounds attraction was an improv of a pedigree racehorse embroidered from a cow moose and a taunt of Bullwinkle J Moose [] from the "Canadian Godfather of Art"

A summer place in Sussex, Sussex http://www.jonahplace.com/Jonah_Place_English/ehistory.htm adjoined to a barn loft studio harboring an art isle, paint brushes, band saw, a stock pile of seasoned carving materials and a treasured life collection wood craft tools. Whittling away from dusk to dawn, small scale toopalow wood moose models sold and stocked in the Animaland Gift shop next to larger than life skills put to concrete and fiber glass Winston Bronnums' biography January 10, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUo-XoJOR78

Redesigning the new Trans Canada Highway away from the original park route 114 highway eventually drained the park from tourism and left the park closing down leaving the infrastructure to Potash mining and shale fracking designating zoning area for industrial abandoning the park in an inheritance of folklore ref>http://wwaannddeerrlust.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/animal-land-sussex-nb/. Succumb from a long battle with cancer, Winston had passed away at the Sussex Health Centre1991 September 10, 1991 and laid to rest with his family at ST. Ansgar Anglican cemetery located at the top of the Klokledahl Hill in New Denmark, New Brunswick

Winston Bronnums' numerous creations included Animaland sculpture zoo, Penobsquis, New Brunswick Wooden carved animals sold at the Animaland gift shop ranging from $700 to $2,500 in 1969,

Reference List

Cow Bay Moose, Silver Sands Beach(Spring of 1959) http://www.bigthings.ca/scotia/pictures/moose1.jpg

Blowhard- The Race Horse 1967 http://www.bigthings.ca/newbruns/pictures/blowh1.jpg

Jumbo the Elephant, St Thomas Ontario 1985 http://www.bigthings.ca/ontario/pictures/jumbo1.jpg

The Fisherman and the Lobster (World's Largest Lobster) Shediac, New Brunswick 1990 []

Art Memorial Scholarship University of New Brunswick http://www.scholarshipscanada.com/search/scholarship.asp?ItemNo=1&ScholarshipID=19818&URL=customresults

--Shuffle Kat (talk) 20:08, 22 January 2013 (UTC)--Shuffle Kat (talk) 17:38, 28 January 2013 (UTC)