Sabine Hahnel: Finding connection in nature through art
Artist Sabine Hahnel moved to Canada from Germany in 1998, seeking adventure. Before immigrating, she completed her nursing training in Germany and began her career there. After arriving in Alberta, she joined the Grey Nuns Community Hospital in 2002, caring for patients in intensive care for more than 20 years before transitioning to the cardiac rehabilitation clinic before retiring in 2023.
Those years in cardiac rehab shaped her outlook on health and well-being. “Cardiac rehab is all about helping patients recover after major heart events like surgery or heart attacks,” she says. “We try to get them back into a healthier way of living so they don’t have further troubles.”
Sabine often encouraged patients to reconnect with nature. “I always told them doctors should prescribe walking every day for at least half an hour,” she says. “I preach that, and I practice it.”
“I’m a little disappointed because I retired too early to make the move with (the clinic) into the new (health centre),” she says. “But I’m super happy that maybe a little piece of myself is still attached to that in terms of art.”
Discovering creativity after the wall fell
Growing up in East Germany, Sabine says creativity wasn’t encouraged. “Art wasn’t really a thing there,” she says. “Your expression of free anything wasn’t really fostered.
When the Berlin Wall fell, her artistic side flourished. “I had a hunger for it,” she says. “I started painting much more.”
Life got busy between moving to Canada, raising children and working long shifts in the intensive care unit (ICU), but Sabine always carved out moments to paint. During the pandemic, those moments became essential. “ICU got really crazy,” she says. “I really needed it for my own mental health to stay sane during that time.”
A style shaped by feeling and freedom
Sabine describes her work as impressionist, inspired by artists like Monet. “It’s not realism, and it’s not abstract,” she says. “It’s something in between, where you aim to elicit more of a feeling. There’s a little bit of mystery where some details are missing. You can put your own imagination into that piece.”
Nature is at the heart of her art. After retiring, she and her husband established a bison ranch near Vegreville, where they maintain 14 kilometres of trails. “Every morning, we go for an hour’s walk before breakfast,” she says. “This is what I see. It’s the trails.”
Sabine’s paintings reflect the constant change she observes outdoors, and she believes those lessons apply to life. “Nothing in nature is ever stagnant,” she says. “Things are always changing and adapting. Whatever gets thrown nature’s way, it deals with it, good or bad. I feel like we should be more like that and not as far removed from it as we are. These days we’re so attached to our smartphones and technology that we lose that connection.”
Pathway through the glow
The piece displayed at Covenant Community Health Centre, Pathway through the glow, captures this philosophy. Inspired by the trails near Sabine’s home, it evokes the quiet beauty of Alberta’s changing seasons. “This is what that painting represents to me — being out there, seeing the changes, living that and trying to convey it,” she says.
The painting’s layered brushstrokes and vibrant colours suggest movement and resilience, inviting viewers to pause and reconnect with the natural world. For Sabine, that connection is essential. “Maybe if some patients are sitting there and looking at that painting, they will get inspired,” she says. “Maybe they’ll go outside and walk.”
A lasting connection
For Sabine, having her work displayed at the health centre is deeply personal. “After all these years of working for Covenant, it feels like a small piece of me will stay there,” she says. “I always felt (the team) was more like a family than co-workers.”
Sabine hopes to continue exploring nature through her art. One dream on the horizon is an artist’s residency near Prince Rupert, B.C. — a chance to spend three weeks painting along the Skeena River in the wilderness. “That would be something different for me to do,” she says.
For Sabine, art is more than a creative outlet. It’s a way to share the healing power of nature. “I don’t paint people or animals,” she says. “It’s always trees, prairie and skies. That’s my thing.”
Find your way with Covenant Map
With the Covenant Map app, explore everything the Covenant Community Health Centre at Covenant Wellness Community has to offer.
Download on the App Store or Google Play.