Central Alberta artist Dave More’s landscape and garden works are being celebrated in a new book.
Greatest Garden: The Paintings of David More is an examination of the landscape painter’s engagement with the garden in its many varied forms.
Featuring over fifty original artworks, the book compiled by Marybeth Laviolette and published by University of Calgary Press, encompasses a career in which More often returned to reinterpret the same verdant subject matter.
Known for his lively brushwork and keen sense of colour, More found gardens in some unexpected places — from his native Central Alberta to India.
The artist will be attending a book launch at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery on Sept. 11, from 2 to 4 p.m.
In 2019, More and his wife Yvette Brideau, donated 200 of his paintings and drawings to the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery. That same year, the MAG hosted a retrospective exhibition of his work that was curated by Laviolette.
Lorna Johnson, retiring executive-director of the Red Deer museum, said it was a “delight” to work with More, Laviolette and the publisher “to realize our vision for a (book) that would reflect Dave’s work… It is an important milestone in documenting the art history of Central Alberta.”
Being the subject of a book “is truly a privilege,” said More, who feels it will allow his works to reach a wider audience.
He credited Laviolette, Johnson and her team, saying “the last year has given us a most memorable journey.”
The former Red Deer College visual arts instructor is based in Benalto. He is part of a generation of landscape artists who emerged in the 1970s “to make beauty out of the ordinary and challenge the expected with bold acts of creation.”