Edmonton Journal: Saskatchewan artist paints a prairie wonder

By Janice Ryan, edmontonjournal.com

After graduating in 1986 with a BA in English literature from the University of Saskatchewan, Ken Dalgarno’s future seemed destined to embrace writing. But three years later, after picking up a brush, his love and instant affinity with this visual art form surpassed his interest in writing.

Born and raised in Moose Jaw, Dalgarno’s work has been shown in solo and group shows since 1993 and is part of private and public collections across North America as well as Italy and South Africa. Dalgarno’s recent muse is the crooked trees of Alticane, a bizarrely shaped cluster of trees found on a patch of private land near Saskatoon. Using short energetic impressionist strokes and thick acrylic impasto (with texture), Dalgarno builds peaks and valleys on the canvas creating a landscape within a landscape.

After dedicating two years to the Crooked Trees, even spending nights to be positioned for the savory dusk and dawn shots, Dalgarno unveiled 13 paintings, 10 photos and a book, The Crooked Trees of Alticane, a Saskatchewan Wonder, as part of an eight-city tour through Western Canada, Montana and South Dakota.

The Journal had a chance to talk with Dalgarno about his new show, “The Crooked Trees of Alticane.”

Q: I’m embarrassed to say that I have never heard of the crooked trees of Alitcane. What are they?

A: They are a small grove of trembling aspen northwest of Saskatoon that have mutated, so much so, that they twist and contort at incredible angles much like an enchanted forest. At times a branch will actually loop 360 degrees like a corkscrew. They are a botanical phenomenon.

Q: How did you discover the trees?

A: In 2008 I was working at the Moose Jaw Public Library and a woman came to the reference desk and just by happenstance, showed me her photographs of the crooked trees. I was dumbfounded … I couldn’t believe that they existed in Saskatchewan. I knew immediately I wanted to paint them.

Q: What happened next?

A: I went online to learn as much as possible and found out they are virtually unknown, even in Saskatchewan. The next step was to get up there and take a look. They are incredibly fascinating; there is this mystical allure to them.

Q: What hooked you to pursue this project?

A: The trees had this abstract quality and they were something that I had never heard. I mean as a Canadian, you think that pretty much every tree in Canada has been painted by The Group of Seven. This was something that seemed untouched.

Q: How has this project changed you?

A: I go back to the quote that starts my essay (in the book) by Chief Sequoia: “To be one with the Trees is to know life within your own spirit.” I was always looking for that bond with the land, as in my “Sculpted Landscapes” series. This is an extension of that … a connection to the natural world.

Q: Trees are sacred in many cultures — Buddhism has The Tree of Enlightenment and Norse mythology Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Were trees always important to you?

A: I’ve always thought of trees as these individual beings, these lungs that keep putting oxygen back into our atmosphere.

Visual Arts Preview

Ken Dalgarno: The Crooked Trees of Alticane

Where: McMullen Gallery, main floor University of Alberta Hospital

When: Until Dec 24

More info: 780-407-7152 or www.dalgarnoart.com