Storm Sketch

In this landscape painting by Jim Stokes, an expansive sky stretches over the warm, flat terrain, continuing Stokes’ practice of exploring prairie skies, fields, and landscapes. The loose brushstrokes animate the clouds, while the wide-cut prairie expanse is fresh and meditative. With no trees or human figures in the landscape, the open air, endless sky speaks to the unobstructed world of possibility. 

Fluid and gestural paint handling is played against a sharp sense of light in the distance. Nearing abstraction, the painting creates an impression of wholeness that captures the northern Alberta light and evokes a unique sense of time and place, all balanced with the influence of abstraction. The simple composition and painterly brushwork convey the contrast between prairie sky and ground in a profound response to the landscape.

When asked to explain the intention in his landscapes, Stokes makes reference to the 19^th century poet Walt Whitman whose work addresses ​“the universe within the blade of grass.” According to the artist, his art seeks ​“to reveal something of that seed of universality in the landscape” and allows people to reflect upon their own emotional responses to the prairies. 

“I guess I see these pieces as a metaphor for freedom,” he said, adding wide open space is a very appealing concept psychologically.