Grassland Series artwork on display in Pincher Creek

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on June 7, 2022.

Submitted photo Artist Colin Starkevich's The Grassland Series is currently on display at the Lebel Mansion Gallery in Pincher Creek.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

An Alberta artist who uses the southern Alberta grasslands as inspiration for his work is currently exhibiting his artwork at the Lebel Mansion Gallery in Pincher Creek until June 24.
The work in the exhibition is part of a series called The Grassland Series, which is an ongoing series with new work being developed continuously for it by Colin Starkevich.
“The exhibit depicts landscapes and wildlife from the grasslands region of Canada emphasizing on the grasslands region that exists in southern Alberta,” said Starkevich
He said he started to develop the series back in 2009 when he was 19 years old
“That’s where I kind of experience the natural grasslands regions for the first time, that I kind of fell in love with it all the open space and the unique wildlife that was there,” said Starkevich.
Over the years the series has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions.
In 2020 The Grassland Series was exhibited in Lethbridge’s Helen Schuler Nature Centre and the largest exhibition to date took place in 2015 when The Grassland Series premiered as a 2500 square foot solo exhibition at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton.
“It was the first exhibition ever of The Grassland Series and I was only 25 years old at the time, so I’m pretty sure I’m probably one of the youngest if not the youngest artist in Canadian history to have a one-man exhibition at a nationally-acclaimed provincial museum,” said Starkevich.
He said in the exhibition presently at Pincher Creek, three styles of work are showcased. Realism oil and acrylic paintings, plain air oil paintings created out in the landscape on location, and erratic drawings which are created on site in the field of the large rocks (erratics) left behind by the glaciers which are scattered throughout the grasslands region.
He said that based on the erratics he had created his own type of style which he calls erratic drawings.
“These are drawings created on somewhat heavily gessoed (primed) canvas and using ink pen, pencil and charcoal and they’re also created on site, on location and they depict the glacial erratics,” said Starkevich.
He said he draws his inspiration from the grasslands as growing up in Edmonton he was not in contact with nature and once he saw the grasslands for the first time, something inside of him was naturally drawn to them.
For information about the series and the artist visit https://www.colinandthegrasslandseries.com/

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