New Enchanted Forest exhibition stuns at Jasper museum

The fundraiser features top Western Canadian artists and aims to support the Jasper Yellowhead Museum & Archives.

Forests hold a special power (ever heard of forest bathing?) and a new art exhibition at Jasper’s beloved local museum is translating that magic to canvas.

Created through a partnership between Mountain Galleries (Jasper’s preeminent fine art gallery) and the Jasper Yellowhead Museum & Archives, the Enchanted Forest art show aims to raise funds to help support Jasper’s historical society and their community programming.

“People are just amazed at how beautiful these pieces are,” says museum manager Rob Hubick. The show is diverse and colourful, with a lot of texture. Through a variety of materials it shows different points of view on Western Canadian forests.

Many Western Canadian artists are featured, including two young Jasperites. Pascal Robinson and Satoko Naito (who goes by Rico) approached their pieces differently. Robinson chose to paint Rosemary’s Rock, which was featured in an old Marilyn Monroe movie, though she didn’t know that when its multi-coloured lichen caught her artistic eye; Rico takes a mixed media approach to her works, integrating four-leafed clovers and other elements that means the original piece can’t be preserved (six limited edition prints will be available for purchase).

“[The museum is] pretty important. My first art show was in the museum. I really want to help them to continue doing what they do,” Robinson says.

The founder of Mountain Galleries, Wendy Wacko, adds that “it’s wonderful to expand our exhibition space, and to partner with the museum is an important part of our cultural journey. A lot of visitors appreciate the chance to see a smaller town museum. It’s eccentric, and amusing and interesting as hell.”

Mountain Galleries has helped make Jasper a hub for high level Western Canadian art. “Wendy has been hugely supportive of the museum and the community as a whole,” says Hubick.

The Enchanted Forests and Other Treasures fundraising exhibit will run in the Showcase Gallery until November 2020.