Ken Van Rees

Hope

The Columbia Icefields are not only a major tourist attraction in the Rocky Mountains but also supply water to a number of river systems, one of which directly affects where I live in Saskatoon. Although the glaciers have been retreating there is still hope that mitigation of climate change will allow these frozen sources of water to exist in these mountain landscapes.

Greg Hargarten

Transfusion Donor

Fresh water is the lifeblood of everything on the planet—without it there is no life. Glaciers hold close to seventy percent of the earth’s fresh water, they are sensitive indicators of climate change and the general health of the global water supply. I wanted to paint an image that would help illustrate the contibution of glaciers to life on the planet by their delivery of fresh water in the context of water as lifeblood. I also wanted to stress the importance of the glacial health as an indicator of the earth’s health. In this painting, an abstracted aerial view, I decided to personify the glacier, giving it human features. It’s life literally melting away while it continues to support the landscape around it in a way that cannot be sustained.

Greg Hargarten

Heartland

Continuing with our theme of “Summit to Sea—Water as our Lifeblood,” I wanted to further the idea of the importance of glaciers, and how they are at the heart of our fresh water supply and very health of the earth. This abstracted aerial view shows the glacier as an actual heart pumping out the life giving water.

Paul Trottier

July Moraine

Over the years I have back packed through out Banff, Yoho and Jasper. It is always amazing during these hikes when I come across a glacier fed lake or stream. The colour of the lakes in particular seems to catch my attention. This colour is due to the presence of rock flour creating a wonderful blue/green appearance. During a family vacation to the mountains, we had the opportunity to visit Moraine Lake. Visiting the very populated site I noted that most people looked at the lake briefly and then carried on. My family spent three hours watching the changing light across this wonderful lake spot. During this time I had the opportunity to explore with camera in hand. I felt that the log jam in the foreground would help to anchor a painting-and the large log was just very interesting. As soon as I returned home I could not wait to get started on this painting from the photo’s I took. These glacier fed lakes and rivers have always had a special meaning to me-they signal a time to rest, reflect and a time to immerse.

Roger Trottier

Athabasca Glacier

The Athabasca glacier is one of six principal toes of the Columbia Icefield in the Canadian Rockies”. The icefield is the largest icefield in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The glacier suffered from climate changes resulting in melting that has caused the size of the glacier to decrease significantly - its size shrinking to 125 square kilometres. This has meant a decrease in the amount of water that it releases across the continent. This is cause for concern from scientists and agriculturists and interested members of the public and is reason to question the wisdom of draining the prairie wetlands through ditches and canals when there is the danger of losing this valuable source of nourishment. Fortunately, the projections of the future output of snow will continue, but recent seven metre snow deposits are frighteningly diminished considered against the previous size of the outputs feeding glacier. This painting features a view from a parking lot located across from the melt-off end of the glacier tongue, just west of the icefield highway that runs by the terminus and when compared with original views of the glacier demonstrates why there should be cause for concern. I have visited this site many times over the years and it is daunting that this magnificent feature of our ecology is failing. We can only hope that current actions to offset climate changes so that actions to preserve water retention are effective.

Roger Trottier

Red Deer River Watershed

This mural was designed to provide a broad overview of the Red River basin showing the extent of the rivers and waters extending from the Rockies foothills to the west border of Saskatchewan where the Red River joins the South Saskatchewan. It provides a somewhat realistic illustration of the cultural activity that takes place in this Red River Watershed, showing the eco geographic features such as rivers, lakes, farmlands, industry, urban development, transportation, wildlife and human culture. The painting serves as a useful education-study device. It was reproduced as a desk size map to accompany social studies, science and cultural studies.

Cam Forrester

Vanishing wetlands

The river bisects the landscape, one side showing the natural wetlands, the other side is drained cultivated agricultural lands. In the distance, the man-made canals empty in to a reservoir that has been heavily influenced by the chemicals from the runoff. The river changes from blue to green as it intersects with the water from the reservoir, affecting those downstream. 

The image is based on data and information I have received through the Global Water Futures Scientists as well as other groups concerned with the loss of our prairie wetlands. Important facts that lead my outcome were: 80–90% of Saskatchewan drainage has been done illegally. 3500 drainage projects were approved with no inclusion of wetland retention. There are 2.4 million acres of unapproved drainage in Saskatchewan. 100,000–150,000 quarter sections with unapproved drainage. 1800 miles of unapproved drainage ditches.

The painting nicely encapsulates the complex nature of the practice of wetland drainage.Each side of the painting may generate a range of different perspectives. For instance, someone who wishes to maximize waterfowl habitat may interpret the left side as an ideal landscape. Those most interested in making a living in modern agriculture may see in this same side a landscape with which nothing can be done without improvement.

Paul Trottier

Bob’s Senior Moment

About ten miles out of Saskatoon and close to Meacham, is a series of prairie drainage water bodies. Located at 52 2 ’16.89 Latitude and 105 46 ’47.53 w this water body was visited and photographed by Bob Ferguson in its frozen state in the middle of winter. Struck by the depth of colour, rhythm of light and dark and function of these wetland area’s that are fundamental to the prairie ecosystem, I decided to highlight the beauty of frozen water in the middle of winter. This is a simple prairie scene that is full of reflection and story for me. It reminds me of ice fishing, cross country skiing and snowshoeing across such area’s. The wind howls, and the snow flies, but there remains a calm and warmth being close to these area’s. These area’s are a part of my sense of place and they help me to feel rooted to this place.

Ken Van Rees

Dodging Storm Cells

One summer we were flying to Hickson Lake to paint for a week, and I was able to sit in the cockpit of the floatplane on the trip there. I have spent a lot of time doing soil research in the boreal forest but it always amazing to see it from a different perspective. This vantage point from the floatplane revealed the myriad of lakes and streams and how water permeates these landscapes that you don’t necessarily see from the ground. This area north of Missinipe was also burned in a forest fire in 2015 depicted by the lighter green in the painting. This painting reminds me of how interconnected weather/climate is to the functioning of the boreal through water and fire. It wasn’t until I started painting the lakes that I realized that my research sites are located in the upper left corner of this painting. Funny story – I was showing this painting at a show and some people were talking about it, so I went up to talk to them about the painting and they thought it was a golf course! Interesting how perspective can change one’s perceptions of an image. 

Ken Van Rees

Musical Remnants

The past 10 years I have been exploring and interacting with burnt forests in northern Saskatchewan. The charcoal work is made in situ at the English Fire north of Prince Albert, by collecting charcoal rubbings from the standing burnt trees. Most people avoid burnt forests because they are unwelcoming places and a reminder of death and dying but fire is an essential part of maintaining the boreal forest. It’s not until you spend time in these black and dreary places that you can appreciate the changes occurring in this ecosystem. The title for this charcoal work was a result of trees making sounds when I was taking the charcoal markings off the trees onto the paper. If you look closely, you can see some stipple marks from the ‘musical’ burnt branches which reminded me of musical notes.

Ken Van Rees

10,000 Years of Water

Water is not only important for ecosystem function and services but over time it also impacts soil development. This work is a soil imprint of an Eluviated Brunisol profile which are sandy soils commonly found with jack pine forests. Water has been percolating through this soil for 10,000 years since the icesheet retreated and created these intense colors in this profile. The top layer of the soil has turned greyish white in color due to the acid-rich water leaching elements from the soil particles in this upper A horizon. Below this bleached horizon the color has turned an intense orange-reddish color which indicates that iron in the soil has been oxidized with time. The lower horizon is a grey color and represents what the original soil looked like as it has not been influenced by the soil forming processes. Within this micro scale of the soil profile, is a network of rivers (dendritic pattern) that has been carved into the paint to reveal the blue painted ground of the canvas signifying the importance of water in ecosystems.

Ken Van Rees

Water as our Lifeblood

This is the second soil profile work that I did which is similar to the 10,000 Years of Water artwork. However, the ground painted on this canvas is orange-red to represent our blood. The network of red lines represents our veins/arteries that move blood through our bodies.

Greg Hargarten

Lifeblood in Reserve

I had the opportunity to paint the boreal forest north of Prince Albert in late winter/early spring. Winter brings many changes to Boreal forest areas. Much of life slows or goes into hibernation and the lakes freeze, holding their life giving water until the spring. As the warm weather arrives and the lake begins to melt, I was struck by the colour of the red-magenta ice at the shore. It seemed to be hinting at the lifeblood of water waiting to be released to breath the new life of the spring.

Paul Trottier

Black Betty Swamp

While working at the Kenderdine Campus, I had time after work each day to explore and paint the Lake land region. Over the course of several summers, I became smitten with the colours, textures and functions of bogs that dot the boreal landscape. These bogs/swamps filter the water and act as a catch basin for water collection that slowly seeps away through out the spring-fall seasons. These sites were often visited by wildlife in the later part of the day as a place to hydrate. Full of colour and reflections the swap areas became my primary focus capturing the ever changing appearance. During my last years at Emma Lake, I started to note that these specific areas were showing algae blooms early each year. On my last trip to this location I noted that in the spring the algae and the surface water plants were covering the surface-impeding the deep colours that were below and drying the swamp areas up at a quicker rate.

Roger Trottier

Culvert Rushe

The shoreline of the stream that flows into Emma Lake from north of the community of Christopher Lake (Christopher Lake is north of Prince Albert Saskatchewan). I have a particular appreciation for creek side cattails, other grasses and small shrubs that populate the shoreline, given the important purifying function provided, in particular by cattails, of removing nitrogen, phosphorous and other harmful elements that otherwise pollute natural waters.

Roger Trottier

Mayview Muskeg

This painting illustrates the water retention capacity of a muskeg like those found in the area near Emma Lake, Saskatchewan. I often see muskegs like these in my travels as I look for interesting landscape to paint and have an abiding interest in the capacity of such muskeg-like sloughs to hold waters. It is my recollections that when as a youth I worked on my grandfather’s hayfield visiting the bog areas adjacent to the creek that ran through the meadow. I remember wandering to the edges of the creek, slogging through the wet slough grasses, observing frogs and insects jumping, and colored birds fluttering through the shrubs. In my more recent hikes, I am reminded of the pleasure I experience of the wildlife and plant life I find in the wetland meadows. The setting of this painting is in the Mayview area, located just north of Shellbrook Saskatchewan.

Roger Trottier

Muskoka Marsh

This abstracted rendering of a Marsh site is suggested in this painting - a forested area where somewhat stagnant waters have collected amidst a stand of trees. A marsh is described as a wetland ecosystem where water covers the ground for long periods of time. Small shrubs often grow along the shallow edges providing a transition between water and dry land. An important function of marshes like these is the shelter and nesting sites they provide to birds, insects and small rodents. The water collection and absorption of excess nutrients that lowers oxygen levels important to wildlife is an important function of a marsh.

Roger Trottier

Marsh: Southwest Entry Gate

Highway 240 passes through the south gate of the Prince Albert National Park in northern Saskatchewan.  The entry to the park crosses the Spruce river – it is thru an area of flooded meadow flats. The river passes under a bridge over the highway which gives a good view of the grass meadows that extend out from both sides of the river. The wetland and flow channel are interspersed with tongues of shoreline, floating water grasses, cattails, shrubs and trees. The meadows are quite wet, open pools of water evident throughout, providing quite adequate water reserves nourishing the foliage, and floatage. Bodies of wetland like this contribute pleasingly to the retention properties of the marsh, providing suitable feeding and nesting areas for the marine life and providing a buffer against forest fire and filtering out harmful minerals and poisons.