Colour in a colourless world: A celebrated artist and Vietnam veteran displays his pandemic project in the Gatineau Hills
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- 27 Oct 2022
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At the height of the pandemic, Wakefield, Que. artist Al Skaw worried he’d never again display his work in public.
"I thought all the galleries are going to close. I was so pessimistic about it all. I thought this is the death of culture," said the gifted figurative painter.
"I remember thinking, ‘I’ll never show in a gallery again because it’s a public place.'"
That’s when Skaw launched a passion project.
It began as some drawings and a story on social media. Skaw’s central character was an artist living through a pandemic.
"The pandemic had caused his community to become colourblind," said Skaw.
"The artist becomes the community’s best option to find colour again. He comes to Canada and discovers Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, and Emily Carr."
That story has evolved into a series of vibrant and animated paintings, now on exhibit at the MacLaren House Art Gallery in Wakefield. It’s called "Unreliable Narrative".
"I thought that was a better title than, ‘Fake news,'" laughed Skaw.
The paintings depict his subjects in a variety of scenarios in Canada’s wilderness.
Examples include Thomson painting and paddling with a bear.
Another shows the Group of Seven crowding Thomson’s canoe for a cruise along a rushing river.
And another reveals artist Emily Carr, joining Thomson for a plein-air painting session, while a monkey observes from a tree stump. Read More…
