Migration Series by Canadian Artist Jane Isakson

Migration Series

Click on Image to view the full painting and details.

The Migration Series was my first large body of work after finishing my BFA. I had moved to the Yukon and was painting small oil landscapes when a friend asked for a painting that included wildlife. That initial painting was quite different from the landscpaes I was painting and closer to the abstract work I had done at Art School. It was then that I started a shift to larger formats with acrylic paint in a more abstracted style, often using multiple panels. I am still moved by the seasons and migrations of my home Territory, and this series of paintings continues to influence my approach to painting, seeking out not just the visible, but imagined aspects of the workings of the natural environment.

While I was at a Residency at the Banff Centre to work on the Three Rivers Project, a poet named Robin Chapman came to see my presentation (which was largely the Migration Series), and she wrote a poem about the paintings. With her permission, I include it here for you.

In Jane's painting, the caribou
Carry light in their antlers,
Light in their hooves, circles of light
In their bodies, repeating the circle
Of light that never sets in the sky--
Threads of light link them to each other
In the river of animals traveling
A thousand Arctic miles.
Salmon leap up the rapids, carrying
Fire in their sides.

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Isakson FIne Art

Isakson FIne Art