When artist Colin Starkevich heads out to his favourite spots looking for material, he often gets comments from people about how southern Alberta is ‘empty’ or boring, some place you just drive through.
But he’s trying to change that with The Grassland Series, now on exhibit at the Akokiniskway Gallery in Rosebud until August 31. Over 30 of Starkevich’s paintings from the last 10 years are intended to raise awareness about the importance and diversity in nature in the Canadian grasslands region, emphasizing southern Alberta.
“People see it as a bunch of open space filled with nothing, but what I want to try and do with my work is say that when you’re out there and spending time in the natural landscape, you realize it’s full of life and all this biodiversity,” he says. “Once a person starts paying attention to their natural surroundings, whether it’s here or elsewhere in the world, there’s beauty out there.”
He says there is often “doom and gloom” when it comes to talking about the environment in Alberta, but he says his paintings show that it’s not all lost, at least not yet.
“The grasslands are an easy target because the majority of the landscape has been lost due to agriculture and urban development, but there is still a lot of prairie that still looks the same way it did hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago, and I think that’s definitely worth celebrating.”
Starkevich’s work has been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including a massive 2,500 square foot solo exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton in 2015. His work includes fine art pieces created in studio, along with ‘plein air’ work or open-air painting done in person.
The Grassland Series exhibit will be hosted at the Akokiniskway Gallery in Rosebud until August 31.
