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Art for the ages

Often reviews of landscape exhibits use such adjectives as “scenic” or “picturesque” because there are few other ways to describe such art, even the high quality work.
GR-20090617-SAG0801-306179969-AR

Often reviews of landscape exhibits use such adjectives as “scenic” or “picturesque” because there are few other ways to describe such art, even the high quality work.

Apart from its high quality, the scenic and picturesque landscapes of Joe Haire and Al Roberge demand one significant description — everlasting. Now on display as part of the Timeless exhibit at Art Beat Gallery, their images of Alberta’s vast and diverse geographies seem to exist where time does not. There aren’t any unnecessary elements that would provide the viewer with a frame of reference. Except for a rundown lodge, there is no way to discern whether the paint was applied to the canvas a century ago or just last year. Similarly, it’s plausible that the scenes will look exactly the same a hundred years from now.

Eric Outram, co-owner of the gallery, put it best when he cited the exhibit’s title.

“It has that timeless quality,” he said. “It’s not going to change.”

When it comes to how some things stay the same, he knows what he’s talking about. He reminisced about Art Beat’s early days and explained that Haire may be one of the artists for this new show but he was one of the gallery’s first exhibiting artists back in the early 1990s. Outram even remarked that Haire has been developing his style for more than two decades.

What Haire has accomplished in that period of time is like Alberta impressionism. Rather than detail out every needle on the pine tree or blade of grass on the ground, he prefers to exemplify scenes of serenity with the major features and soft toned pastel-like colours. It seems like it’s in the same school as Ted Harrison but with fewer people or animals and more mountains than Arctic tundra. He prefers to focus on the Rockies and the surrounding rivers and lakes.

Pairing Haire with Roberge for this show makes pretty good sense thematically and stylistically speaking but their subjects vary wildly. The latter leans toward the Badlands, themselves a unique topography of the province.

“We felt that they went together,” Outram said. “They both do traditional styles but one’s representational and the other is looser.”

Roberge must be the representational one because some of his pieces have incredibly fine detail. One painting with a small yellow farmhouse has picture-perfect yet tiny windows to precise scale. It’s enough to make one stare in awe.

Timeless

Artists Joe Haire and Al Roberge
Art Beat Gallery
until June 30
Art Beat Gallery
26 St. Anne Street
780-459-3679
www.artbeat.ab.ca


Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

About the Author: Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ecology and Environment Reporter at the Fitzhugh Newspaper since July 2022 under Local Journalism Initiative funding provided by News Media Canada.
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