Life in the swamp continues

I took a snap as we were passing by mostly because something about the features drew my eye. The dull grey sky flattens the light and the ethereal quality of this image is enhanced by drawn and heavy clouds suspended over twin humps of forest in the distance. Railway lines, phone and hydro lines trace the boundaries of wilderness and act as familiar markers delineating the flatness of prairie.

Robert Kroetsch writes in Seed Catalogue of the indelible imagery of the Canadian landscape. His prairies are spare dry and dusty boned; the seeds of growth and the patterns of prairie life are unearthed touching upon a place that dominates as it nurtures. His poetry recalls the plainness of the place in this photograph. To me it drums a message of Canadian prairie and prairie living and its plainness inspires a host of familiar images from the countryside I grew up in. These images inspire me to paint about places and things that unite us that have power and invoke a sense of the sacred but not in a religious way.