By Men Who Paint

Men Who Paint to paint Prince Albert National Park

Saskatchewan Adventure Artists Return to National Park

Jul 14, 2020 | 10:43 AM

Canadian Landscape painters “Men Who Paint” are returning Prince Albert National Park. The group comprised of Saskatchewan artists Cam Forrester, Greg Hargarten, Paul Trottier, Roger Trottier, and Ken Van Rees, has traveled and painted extensively across Canada and abroad for over a decade.

The group was invited by Brent Hammel and Carla Flaman of the Black Spruce Gallery in Waskesiu to spend a week painting in the park in June.

Now an exhibition of the work will open at the Gallery on July 25th. As it turns out, the timing couldn’t be better.

“This has been the plan last October,” says Hargarten, “and we are very excited to come—we haven’t painted the area in the summer for a number of years. As it turns out, it would have been difficult to travel
elsewhere.”

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The artists, have painted in Germany as well as Canadian locations, such as Yukon’s Ivvavik National Park, Ontario’s Algonquin Park and Georgian Bay, Alberta’s Banff and Jasper National Parks, Nunavut’s Ellesmere
Island, and British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii archipelago. This summer, they are closer to home.

The Men Who Paint discovered their common artistic interest via the now-defunct University of Saskatchewan’s Kenderdine Campus at Emma Lake.

The 55-acre boreal forest summer research retreat and art campus served as the group’s “initial spiritual home.”

“It’s been a real journey for us—but the boreal forest of Northern Saskatchewan will always hold a special place in our hearts,” says Hargarten.

With the Kenderdine campus as their base, the artists began painting the surrounding lake-land area working their way into Prince Albert National Park, then into the Canadian Shield of Lac La Ronge. They also started to travel to other areas of the province and, eventually, the country.

Since then, each artist has pursued his own career and interests, but the group still manages to come together two or three times a year to paint en plein air.

In 2018, the group was invited to Germany to paint and exhibit at the Kunstmuseum in Schwann. The city has had an artist colony since the late 1800s and a long history of plein air painting.

“Germany was an incredible experience, we were in an area that is at the same latitude as Prince Albert National Park, but that is where the similarities ended” Hargarten says of the expedition. “we were excited
to be back in the Canada”

The Men Who Paint were in Prince Albert National Park from June 12-17th painting the boreal Forest as well as the grasslands on the west side of the park. The exhibition will open at the Black Spruce Gallery in
Waskesiu on Saturday July 25th.

The Men Who Paint have exhibited in over 30 solo and group shows in Canada and abroad. Their work is held in public, corporate and private galleries across Canada & abroad, including The Parks Canada Permanent Collection, The Kunstmuseum in Schwaan Germany, OstseeSparkasse Rostock Permanent Collection, Ronald McDonald House Permanent Collection, Blue Cross Permanent Collection and The Mann Gallery in Prince Albert.