Forest Fires – Encompassed in Canadian art

The Canadian heritage of landscape painting has always encompassed the reality of wildfires. But climate change and worsening fire seasons have put new focus on the threat and consequences to our forests. Above and below contemporary landscape artist Kyle Scheurmann’s cautionary works.

Renowned Canadian artist Kim Dorland’s “Where are all the Protest Songs?” is an apocalyptic take on our failing ecosystems, including fires. (Below, detail from his massive centrepiece from the exhibition at Patel Brown in 2022)

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“What is a landscape artist left to paint when we’ve burned, bulldozed, plowed, flooded or paved over all the landscapes?” – excerpt from the exhibition text by Stephen Ranger. (Below, an installation view of the full work)

The Group of Seven and other early Canadian landscape painters were aware of, and had to deal with, the impact of wildfires across their young country. Part of life in the undeveloped north, but the ravages of fire are broader today.

Two of the better known works are Tom Thomson’s Fire-Swept Hills (1915), above and the Frank Johnston’s painting done in Algoma, below.

As of June 26, the 2023 tally of land burned aross this country has risen to 17.8 million acres (7.2 million hectares) for the biggest fire season in modern history for Canada. By October, the total was 44 million acres burned (18 million hectares)