Jenna D. Robinson | Wild Woods

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Jenna D. Robinson, “Afterglow,” no date

acrylic on canvas, 36x36in (courtesy of the gallery)

Jenna Robinson's first solo art exhibition at the West End Gallery in Victoria, skillfully merges the unexpected combination of coastal arbutus and mountainous larch trees.

Arbutus trees take us to the edge of land, where rock meets water, and larch trees stroll along the loftiest mountain slopes, where rock meets sky. Arbutus trees, with their contorted forms and tough wood, paradoxically possess bark as soft and smooth as paper. Conversely, larch trees bear the marks of time in their battered, gnarled, and twisted trunks, yet their needles offer a tactile elegance akin to cashmere among tree foliage.

This exhibition holds personal significance for Robinson, as it reflects her upbringing spent exploring the larch-draped mountains of the Rockies during the initial chapter of her life and her more recent years living seaside in Squamish, BC. Robinson's art is a bold testament to her realistic style, which flirts with elements of abstraction, amplifying contrast and saturating colours to create mesmerizing scenes where lightweaves a tapestry of brilliant highlights and deep shadows.