Allan Harding MacKay: Banff Blue Series

Allan Harding MacKay, "Banff Blue #1," nd

charcoal, chalk pastel, wax, oil pastel, ink jet on paper, 24" x 24"

Reception, Saturday, 18 August, 3 to 5 pm.

BOREAL SERIES

Allan Harding MacKay is in the trees, the mists and the snow with his latest Boreal Series. The artist integrates painting and photography into one image to go beyond the pictorial experience and play with the juxtaposition of reality and illusion. The works are based on spontaneous snap-shots gathered from his daily walks in Banff. He then edits and manipulates the image before painting and drawing into it with pastel, ink, charcoal and wax. This work is not literal landscape. Harding MacKay engages with drama and light, the clash of weather systems (pushing plausibility), references to 19th C. Romantic landscape techniques, in addition to employing exaggerated form by compressing the visual information into a pre-determined format (hence the extended height of the trees). Within a 21st C. context, this powerful combination invites evocations of moody sublimity, contemplation of the art history of landscape, as well as introspection of our reactions to environment – dramatic or otherwise.

BANFF SERIES SINCE 2014

"I have always been attracted to transitions that seem to occur with the clash of weather systems and the formidable clouds and dramatic skies that result. This Banff Series is based on the observations and images I gathered from the viewpoint of my studio and transformed the digital sources into the traditional materials of charcoal, chalk pastel, oil pastel, wax, damar and oil on paper."