Trio of artists strike emotional chord

Only Christine Elmgren has any people in her paintings, but even they are non-descript. There are few fine details to be found in the rest of her works, much like what you’ll get from Mike Dendy and Tom Yurko. Together, the trio’s efforts take the viewer on a journey of emotional discovery that proves the inherent value of landscape paintings.

She admits that this series is actually her first foray away from pure landscapes, but she still wants the scenery to have centre stage.

“The focus is on the people within the landscape,” she explains, “not the people.”

On Location is the name of the first new show in 2012 at the Art Gallery of St. Albert. Landscape shows are not uncommon at this venue but there is something about the work here that is different in a good way. That doesn’t mean that the previous shows weren’t as good; they were. Elmgren, Dendy and Yurko have just struck some poignant emotional chords, however. They did it all just by painting trees, mountains and back alleys.

Elmgren is a recent transplant to St. Albert, having come from Canmore, population 10,000. Being so immersed in the mountains and so far from any metropolis meant that she had the lion’s share of opportunities to paint the Rockies around Kananaskis country any time she wanted. Now, she lives in what she calls a “large urban centre” (comparatively speaking of course), so the people had to enter her paintings at some point.

She did it the smart way: by way of naÄŹve art. It’s simplistic and yes, she doesn’t paint in the people’s faces. Her broad strokes leave the viewer with a sense of nostalgia amplified greatly by her choice of subject matter. A mother pulling her young child on a sleigh down a sidewalk bracketed by metre-high snowdrifts or a person walking down a wintry back alley, the long shadows of the short days decorating what looks like a decades-old camper. These characters could be anyone or they could just be the faceless people that you pass by every day.

Where Elmgren ends with sentimentality is where Yurko picks up with harsh and brutal imagery. The 72-year-old says that he usually starts off trying to depict some kind of realistic view of the scenery “but it never works out that way.” There’s always something that comes along that changes it. He puts his emotions into his work, and it shows.

“I find it difficult to describe my work because I change with the mood. I’m constantly changing. What I have in mind when I start and the end result are completely different.”

Take a close look at Mystic Scape #9 for example. It could be any mountain range in the world for the lack of specificity to it. He doesn’t even allow the title to give the viewer any comfort. This is true nature: a wild beast, red in tooth and claw. It’s more powerful than pretty, more jagged rocks than verdant fields. There’s danger out there that’s unsettling but somehow not disturbing. It seems to serve as a warning that it doesn’t bode well to take beauty for granted.

Yurko’s work definitely speaks for itself.

Dendy’s contribution to On Location lands somewhere in between Elmgren’s sentiments and Yurko’s subtle menace. The local painter devotes his craft almost exclusively to the scenery of trees and ponds. He admits to taking so many photos that he often forgets why he took them in the first place. The trick for him is to find a photo that resonates even months later and that should provide a compelling painting.

“If I can figure it out then it might make a good painting,” he explained drily. “I try to paint what made it exciting enough to take the picture in the first place.”

Once he finds that, he does an excellent job of brushing some very charming scenes such as what you find in Cardiff Pond – Ice Just Out. It bristles with the beauty of a new spring, the bold colours and strong lines jumping off of the canvas, giving the viewer a mental image, a hope that this mild winter will have an early end. It’s interesting timing, then, that On Location opens on Groundhog Day.