Pacific Gallery, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan August 2007

"It's summertime, so we mainly sell landscapes," says the proprietor of the Pacific Gallery near the U of S campus on Temperance St. Mostly carrying consigned works from regional artists as well as B.C. and Quebec works, the tourist season demands landscapes that are unabashedly in awe of the land.
Looking more like picture perfect postcards, the works on site were in absolute adoration of the river valley, the bridges, backyard lanes, and of course, that prairie sky. It is that sky that looks like nothing else, and leaves you feeling limitless and at the same time isolated, very much like wading in the middle of an ocean. There is a strange comfort, one that is beautiful and haunting, and you can either lie back and relax or be remiss and have a nervous breakdown.
A few artists, Davis Langeuin from Kamloops, Robert Roy from Saskatoon, and Rolf Krohn from Montreal, choose to approach the land in a less ideal way, favouring to apply heavy texture to borderline abstract landscapes--albeit nothing new, but certainly different within context.


Image Copyright Rolf Krohn "Quiet Evening"