This painting is about what comes after the devastation.
Walking through Jasper after the wildfire, I was struck by how much life was already finding its way back. The burned and fallen trees are still very much part of the landscape, but between them there is water moving, grasses returning and wildflowers appearing in colours that seem even brighter against what remains.
What stayed with me most was seeing the layers of the land in a way I never had before. With so many trees gone, the shape of the hills, the bends in the water and the landscape beyond were suddenly visible. There was loss everywhere, but there was also this unexpected openness and beauty.
I don’t want to paint Jasper as though the fire didn’t happen. I want the blackened trunks and broken trees to remain part of the story. But I also want to paint what is happening around them now — the colour, the growth, the water continuing on.
What Comes After is about that space between what was and what will be. It isn’t the Jasper I remember, but there is still so much beauty here. Just a different kind.
Part of A Different Kind of Beautiful — Jasper Regrowth Series.
This painting is about what comes after the devastation.
Walking through Jasper after the wildfire, I was struck by how much life was already finding its way back. The burned and fallen trees are still very much part of the landscape, but between them there is water moving, grasses returning and wildflowers appearing in colours that seem even brighter against what remains.
What stayed with me most was seeing the layers of the land in a way I never had before. With so many trees gone, the shape of the hills, the bends in the water and the landscape beyond were suddenly visible. There was loss everywhere, but there was also this unexpected openness and beauty.
I don’t want to paint Jasper as though the fire didn’t happen. I want the blackened trunks and broken trees to remain part of the story. But I also want to paint what is happening around them now — the colour, the growth, the water continuing on.
What Comes After is about that space between what was and what will be. It isn’t the Jasper I remember, but there is still so much beauty here. Just a different kind.
Part of A Different Kind of Beautiful — Jasper Regrowth Series.
