Capturing small town Manitoba

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This article was published 22/10/2018 (2753 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A nearly two year journey over the Manitoban landscape has concluded in a new exhibit reflecting the places that define the province.

Mohan Tenuwara will open his latest collection of works titled Small Towns of Manitoba at Fleet Galleries on Oct. 25. The show includes 25 acrylic landscape paintings of 15 small and rural communities visited by Tenuwara in a search for vignettes of prairie life.

The Bridgwater Forest artist and architect said the exhibit continues his exploration of Manitoba’s communities and his fascination with seasonal transitions that was sparked when he immigrated to Canada in 2005 from Sri Lanka.

“If I recall 10 years back, I think like many immigrants, I got inspired by the seasons here, coming from a tropical country to weather with changing seasons,” Tenuwara said. “That’s one of the reasons I started exploring in different seasons and then beyond our points and into other areas.

“Culture, social life, everything is changing and there are some unique opportunities in each cluster of people, or communities, to talk about different aspects. I think that’s how I decided to work on the small towns of Manitoba,” he said.

On his travels, which took him as far as Erickson, Minnedosa and Flin Flon, Man., Tenuwara documented moments of small town life with his camera or sketchbook: rural homes, a parked camper, an artesian well, a dog on a front stoop and a field of wheat were among his subjects.

After returning to his home studio, Tenuwara would get to work recreating the landscape with his pallet and brush, taking artistic license depicting parts of the community as he interpreted it.

The final imagery has been compared to the works of the historic Canadian landscape painting collective the Group of Seven with its vibrant colours, shapes, and forms, Tenuwara said. Personally, the self-taught artist said he has admired the work of landscape painter Robert Genn and his own work falls in the category of abstract realism.

“I will always convey a story with the minimum amount of shapes and forms and colours,” he explained. “I think that’s the difference between a photograph and a painting.”

His subjects, while certainly inhabited by diverse populations, are depicted without people. Tenuwara said it’s a deliberate choice made to focus on a sense of place.

“I include people if it gives a meaning to the context, otherwise I would just symbolize them. I can say everything I want to say about the place without putting a human being,” he said.

For all the kilometres spent taking in the province and the hours in studio putting colour to canvas, Tenuwara said he’s discovered a new appreciation for the communities that make up Manitoba.

“Just being in the place and the atmosphere and experiencing it, I find very soothing and joyful at the same time,” he said.

Small Towns of Manitoba will be at Fleet Galleries (65 Albert St.) until Nov. 7. An opening reception will be held Oct. 25 at 6:30 p.m. For more information go to my3faces.ca/events