Artist brings wildflowers to life in Jasper

Spring flowers are coming to Jasper early with Edmonton-based artist Erik Visser’s Wildflowers exhibit, which begins this Friday, April 10 and runs through to May 10 at the Jasper Yellowhead Museum and Archives.

The exhibit will feature about two dozen of Visser’s paintings. At a November show at the Ortona Gallery in Edmonton, Visser said he sold about half of his works and painted about 13 new ones for the Jasper exhibition.  

The subject matter, as well as the materials, were all new for Visser, who usually creates more abstract works in acrylic paint. Hiking in Jasper National Park and Kananaskis last summer with his wife Josephine, Visser, inspired by his surroundings, made the decision to paint wildflowers for his new series of paintings. This lighter subject matter is in stark contrast to Visser’s last series in which he portrayed the grief of losing his parents.

Visser experimented with a number of different materials before embarking on his wildflower journey. “I didn’t want to paint wildflowers with a plastic material,” he said. Instead, Visser tested linseed oil-based paint as well as poppy seed oil-based paint and finally settled on a walnut oil-based paint. Finding that walnut oil-based paint ages the best, in terms of keeping the whites from yellowing over time, Visser began painting.  

Traditionally Visser will enter his studio and “go berzerk,” he joked, spending four to five hours on a painting from start to finish. The walnut oil paint takes about six weeks to dry, altering his artistic rhythms. “This was a very technically frustrating process,” he said, but “it’s not about the process... it’s the result that counts.”  

Another change to his process that required a learning period was Visser’s use of brushes instead of the pallet knives he’s used in the past. “I think art is about experimenting,” said Visser. “I think that I was too comfortable in my last series in what I’ve done before. I think that as an artist if you’re too comfortable, you need to change because then it doesn’t become art anymore. You need to challenge yourself,” said Visser.  

Visitors at the exhibition will “see a new Erik,” he said, adding that they’re “not the flowery flower paintings.” Poet Rebecca Schellenberg will also be reading poems she based on Visser’s struggles with painting. “She is hilarious,” Visser added.  

The opening reception at the Museum goes from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday night with Schellenberg’s poetry reading at 8:30 pm. For more info about Erik Visser or his paintings, visit www.erikvisser.com.