Thousands of Red Deerians are already familiar with the art of Darren Petersen — he created the luminous glass fish sculptures in the Red Deer Recreation Centre lobby.
Petersen’s less known as a painter of birds, caribou, insects and deer.
But both of his talents are also on display at his Oasis exhibit in the Marjorie Wood Gallery in Red Deer’s Kerry Wood Nature Centre.
Petersen, a life-long nature-lover, is showing his two- and three-dimensional artworks in the hopes of drawing attention to the rich abundance of animals that are living among us — even as their habitats shrink.
One painting depicts the dozen species of shorebirds he saw during an outing to Slack Slough, a wetland just south of Gasoline Alley. Although “surrounded on all sides by asphalt, concrete, crops and freeway traffic,” this small oasis still offers what these birds need to survive and reproduce, he noted.
Habitat fragmentation is a “serious concern,” said Petersen. But he’s heartened that nature seems to be making-do in places like the Gaetz Lakes, though surrounded by expanding city.
“As we nibble away at the environment… We need to recognize the significance of the leftovers and take great care of these (green) places,” he writes in his artist statement.
A gaggle of Petersen’s streamlined glass shore birds are on display, as well as couple of brilliantly hued glass ducks and a brown trout. On the gallery walls are animal portraits — everything from a cougar to a kestrel.
His wildlife paintings are not of the heroic variety, but seek to capture the animals as they naturally appear — a herd of pronghorn antelope race across a Prairie field, a pair of Arctic grayling fish swim in a clear, shallow stream.
“Painting animals is a way to know them,” said the Sparrow Glassworks artist, who grew up in the Edson area and studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary.
He bases his portraits on photos from real-life animal encounters. (Although he’s had several cougars sightings during hikes, the cougar in his painting was from the Calgary Zoo).
Some conservationists believe humans need personal exposure to animals to really be inspired to save them. If that’s so, then Petersen hopes his depictions of wildlife “at our back door, and sometimes even our front yard” will encourage more Central Albertans to walk along local wetlands and trails and see these nature-dwellers first-hand.
“For me, it’s critically important…. We all lead busy lives, but even having a bird feeder outside my kitchen window stops me every single day,” he said — as chickadees, or a migrating bird stops to have a bite.
His Oasis exhibit is on until Oct. 22.
