Category Archives: Aaron

From the Collection of the Artist

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Caleoni
14″ x 18″
Mixed Media on Canvas
2010

This was painted half in Hawaii and half in Canada. It was my first time being overseas and the experience of Oahu really touched me. My time there was very special for me and I came to understand something amazing. When I first arrived, I was struck by the sheer humidity of the air, the gentle feeling on my skin. As the days passed and I walked in the valleys and along the beaches, as I swam and soaked in the sun, I began to see the spirit of the land, the energy. I saw the underlying currents of the winds, the water, the rock and soil. The entire island came alive under my feet!

I couldn’t delay. I bought paints, canvasses, supplies and sat in the hotel room every evening, painting away, the song of the island birds coming in through the vast windows.

I felt like a Black feathered Corvid out of my element and yet completely at home. A stranger in a strange and welcoming land.

My wife and I were talking about children, the possibility of a daughter. In that place of renewal and peace I imagined the child of our dreams, perhaps not this physical form represented, but I hope it captured the spiritual essence of what that child might be.

Since that time we have settled in at home and we are expecting a son. Perhaps that daughter is in the future, but for now, just knowing that a new little life is on it’s way, feeling him dance and kick in her belly, fills me with a wonderful joy.

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…Rain or Shine…

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Buffalo I
5″ x 7″
Mixed Media on Canvas
2010

Have you ever gotten close to a buffalo? Have you ever looked into one of those deep, limpid, liquid eyes? Has that buffalo spoken to you? What did she say? Did she tell you about her dreams? Did she talk about her calf, the day it was born, how it ran! Did she talk about circling the children when danger approached, forming a wall of flesh, fur and love? Of the dust rising in the heat of the day – parched and dry – to let them know it was time to move on? Did she describe the exhilarating pace as hooves struck the ground in a deep, satisfying, earth shaking rumble? Did she tell you about the day her baby fell down, never to get up again, as the iron horse rumbled past with a clanging mockery of their own thunder? Did she tell you how they all disappeared, the people starved and fences rose to carve apart the land? Did she tell you those dreams?

Did you listen?

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An Elf Snuck Up And Caught Me!

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…On camera!

Sometimes there is a very small, very clever little 4 year old girl at the house. Sometimes she finds the camera and sometimes…when she’s really quiet, she catches me off guard and snaps a couple photos. I have to hand it to her though, she’s not a bad photographer for only being on the planet since 2003.


For those interested, you’ll see a large painting behind me. This is pretty much how they look after I’ve got things close to figured out. All this one needs now is hours and hours (and hours!) of patient details. In other news, I actually grew a moustache. To my surprise, and sure to be my mother’s delight…it has a definite reddish hue. The viking blood will out, I suppose.

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We Slept on Beaver Hill
3 3/4” x 4 3/4“
Walnut Ink
on Paper
2007

The Edmonton Area used to be called Beaver Hills by the Indigenous people who first lived here. It was a resource rich landscape with hunting, berries, water, trees…everything needed to live well and without fear of hunger or want. Little wonder the Hudson’s Bay Company decided to set up shop. Fort Edmonton was the last outpost before the great, lonely journey to the North and provided a means of trade and peaceable co-existence (for the most part) between the European settlers and the First Nations people. For a time, it offered a possibility of a future wherein both cultures would be equals. Those days are long gone, as are the times before that, but even in fading memory is the knowledge that once, we slept on Beaver Hill.

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Never Tell Me The Odds
12″ x 24″
Acrylic
on Canvas
2007

In the stories, coyote battles monsters. It’s just what coyote does. In one legend from the Nez Perce, Monster was devouring everything in the land. Monster was clever, but he couldn’t seem to capture the last remaining morsel: Coyote. Now, Coyote missed all his animal friends so he was angry at Monster for eating them. One day, Coyote tied himself to a mountain and called out to Monster:

“Come, and get me, if you can!”

So, Monster seeing the coyote defenseless tried to suck him into his belly, but the ropes were strong and tied so well there was nothing Monster could do. Finally, he gave up…but he was still so hungry.

“Coyote….” Monster said slyly, “won’t you come and be my dinner guest tonight?”

“Certainly! Let us put this anger behind us.”

So that night, Coyote came to Monster and as they were preparing for the evening Coyote said, “Monster, I miss my friends so terribly. Won’t you let me in to your stomach so I can see them once more?”

Monster had to hide us delight. At last! He would devour Coyote and his dominance over the land would be complete.

“Step right in,” and he opened his mouth wide.

Coyote leaped in, fearlessly and with all his might, but he didn’t go into Monster’s stomach at all! He tore his way into Monster’s heart and ripped and shredded his way through the giant, beating heart, finally killing Monster and ripping him open, freeing all the animals.

The carcass, Coyote hurled to the four corners of the world and this is how the people came to be. He had no pieces left where he was, so he took the blood on his paws from Monster’s great heart and formed the center people, the Nez Perce.

And that is how coyote did it.

Show Starts in One Week!

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The Bearclaw Gallery Presents
124st – 104ave
780.482.1204

TRICKSTER
New Works by Aaron Paquette

March 3 – March 15 2007
artist will be in attendance 2-4pm opening day

An Unexplored Dream
4″ x 6″
Encaustic, Oil
on Canvas
2007

There is nothing so compelling to me than a waking dream that has not, or can not, be explored. The mystery and meaning must lie asleep until the truth unravels on its own.

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In this piece, I’m using encaustic (to be more specific, Beeswax). I’ve melted it until it runs smooth and then I spread it over the surface of the work. During this first stage, I layered in Oil Paint to give colour to the wax. When the wax hardened, I took a sculpting tool and carved my design into the surface of the wax and then worked more Oil paint into the incisions. I finished it up with a few glazes of Oil, again, worked into the surface of the encaustic, and set it aside to cure.

I had a hard time getting a picture of this piece as there are translucent layers that seemed to be vying for the camera’s auto-focus and most of the results were fairly blurry. If you haven’t seen encaustic work, go check it out. The medium is as versatile as there are artists to use it, and when the layering effect is captured, it can add a subtle beauty to a piece that is difficult to achieve in any other way.

In many examples I have seen, there is a brightness to the work as light bounces down through the layers and then shoots right back out from the surface. For my effort here, I chose a more moody quality. The piece is filled with shadow and a murkiness which fit my intent perfectly.