By Bryan Eneas

Local artist puts brush to bone

Dec 10, 2016 | 3:00 PM

Warm and cool colours fill the walls of Earl McKay’s studio gallery in Prince Albert. Bison skulls line a shelf while a pile of skulls at various stages of being painted rest in the corner.

For the last three years, McKay has used the unusual medium of bison skulls for his art. He first put brush to bone 15 years ago at a client’s behest but returned to the style recently.

He said it’s a way to give the bones new meaning.

“He was a majestic creature, and when he died, he was thrown away. The way I look at it, I take that bison skull and I give it life back,” McKay said. “Once I’m done with the artwork and somebody purchases it… They’ll hang it on their wall, and every time they look at it, they’ll show a respect for it.”

For McKay, working with the skulls is a spiritual experience.

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“You sort of get spiritually involved with it,” McKay said. “I really get involved when I do them, a skull. When I do a skull I want to do the best I can possibly do, because this is my way of showing respect to that bison.”

Since coming across bison bones isn’t common, McKay initially faced financial challenges trying to find material for his art. When he could find adequate pieces to work on, they were often far too expensive for him to obtain.

His problems were solved when a bison rancher spotted him painting a skull in an old studio and offered to sell him skulls at a reasonable price.

Since then he’s expanded to working on moose antlers, elk, deer, wolf and variety of other bone-based mediums.

“[With] canvas, you’re working on a [two dimensional] surface; everything is flat,” McKay said. “A skull, you’ve got to have everything in proportion… [with] skulls you gotta kind of work on the sides.”

McKay compared painting skulls to carving; he said it was about creating balance and harmony with paint on the skull.

His painting comes from a deeply personal place.

McKay grew up in the foster system, a product of the sixties scoop which forcefully separated countless Indigenous youth from their families and placed them into the care system. At the age of six, one of his caretakers noticed he had a raw talent for drawing.

“The 60’s scoop did play a role in me painting… art did keep me sane, it kept me busy, and even back then when I was a kid, I knew I was gunna be a painter,” McKay said. “I knew I had to show people the beauty of what I do; colour it in.”

Years later, McKay now paints upwards of 10 hours a day out of his small studio space he has set up inside of Anglers Hunting & Fishing in P.A.  A small gallery is set up, where he proudly displays some of his recent work, alongside pieces of his “Ribbons of Light” series.

The “Ribbons of Light” series is McKay’s deceptions of the northern lights. He said he would frequently watch them as a youth growing up in Thompson, Manitoba.

Many pieces of the series are found in the Northern Lights Casino locally.

McKay’s works have been purchased by collectors like David Suzuki, Hank Williams Jr. and Lynn Redgrave with his art featured in international gallery showings.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @BryanEneas