Carmen's Images

Today I want to feature Carmen's Images, the online gallery of my friend, Carmen Haakstad, an artist in Grande Prairie. Carmen was the curator of the Grande Prairie Art Gallery when I lived there in the 1980s, and now that he's retired from a successful career at the college there, has been devoting more time to his painting. This is a good thing.  

My landscape series is inspired by my love of the Northern Alberta landscape where as a boy I worked on my parent’s grain farm. The paintings you will see in Carmen’s Images Virtual Gallery are oil paintings on canvas and wood.

The main difference of the two mediums is that I use the texture and grain of wood to help create an interesting composition. This allows the grain of the wood to show through thin layers of transparent oil stain.

I love trying to capture the beauty of a cloudy fall storm,the few weeks of bright summer days, or when the sea of yellow canola fields are in full bloom. 

Carmen's art captures the scale, colour, and beauty of the Peace Country. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

Naturally, as an online gallery, you can buy his art, and I encourage you to do so.