Three Transformations – Our Vast Prairie Landscape

Three distinguished contemporary Canadian landscape artists combine their skills to share unique perceptions of the prairie landscape. “Landscapes inspire us in different ways” is the basic premise of Our Vast Prairie Landscape. Supplemental lectures and workshops led by the artists will demonstrate how to approach landscape from multiple perspectives using feelings, memory and color.

Abstract painter Billie Rae Busby, ceramic artist Brad Keys and painter Judy Ueda strive to demonstrate a broader definition of how landscape can be represented in art, as well as its power to inspire. Their work is not only about exploring the transformative landscapes that surround us, but also addresses the way we approach interpreting landscape in art.

Billie Rae Busby is an accomplished abstract painter who is known for her hard edge landscape paintings and bold colors. Growing up in a small community on the prairies, Busby says she is overwhelmed by the comfort and sense of home she gets when painting the prairie landscape. Her paintings are nonrepresentational depictions of weather, seasons, time of day, and sense of place. Busby uses hard, crisp edges and diagonal lines in her work to create pieces with fascinating perspective and color interactions.

Brad Keys is a contemporary ceramics artist who is inspired by the ever changing nature and icons of the prairie landscape. Working with clay, Keys connects with the past and present of the prairie environment. From the colors of the sky to the textures of fields and architecture, Keys has found the prairies provide endless source of inspiration for his work. Constantly exploring form, surface and glaze, Keys successfully balances these elements to tell a story of observation and inquiry.

Artist Judy Ueda paints in response to the feeling of coming home to the prairie landscape. After spending many years abroad she is still inspired by the vastness and solitude of the prairies. Her Heaven and Earth series is a group of abstract landscape paintings, focused on a vertical format to express the vast expanse of prairie skies. Ueda achieves this sense of calm in her works by painting prairie vistas with a low horizon line. By illuminating the edge between reality and abstraction, her work creates a sense of airiness and depth.