MB Landscapes: Beauty & Hope by Nicholas Burns

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Nicholas Burns, "Beconia Sandbar Willow"

Nicholas Burns, "Beconia Sandbar Willow," 36x36"

Manitoba Landscapes: Beauty and Hope by Nicholas Burns

0pening reception: June 9, 7-10pm

Additional gallery hours: June 10-June 21:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: 12-6pm

Saturdays 12-5pm

This is where I grew up. Walking in the bush was one of my favorite outdoor activities but, for many years, I didn’t get there enough. Thanks to family and friends, I’ve recently had the luxury of being able to experience the land again, particularly the southern shores of Lake Winnipeg. Being there provides peace and solitude, an uninterrupted vista in all its natural glory, a sense of freedom, and inspiration.

I don’t paint en plain air –on location– but I paint landscapes and individual trees I’m familiar with; places I’ve return to regularly, in every season. The challenge is to try and express my feelings for the land.

Landscape paintings are a visible represent of the intersection between physical reality and human understanding. As such, the idea and meaning of landscape continues to evolve. These painting are meditations on landscape as medium of expression, rather than as a painting genre.

It is my hope that a renewed appreciation for Waldeinsamkeit (a German word for a feeling of solitude, being alone in the woods, connected to nature), and respect for the land, can occur. And that my work points in that direction.

Nicholas Burns grew up in Selkirk, Manitoba and spent many hot summer days at campgrounds, cabins, and beaches dotting the edges of Lake Winnipeg. When he wasn’t at the lakeshore, he was at home in the cool basement, drawing and painting. He studied Fine Arts at the University of Manitoba, and one glorious summer creating landscape paintings for Parks Canada, before moving to the coastal Arctic for a decade, where it was finally cool enough sometimes. Upon returning to Winnipeg, he worked as a freelance artist, primarily for comic books and feature film storyboards.His landscape paintings are in Federal and Provincial collections, and private collections internationally.