Impression of the Plains c. 1927

Wilson Irvine made this ethereal watercolor and graphite on paper, titled 'Impression of the Plains.' At first glance, the pastel palette and swirling forms seem abstract, almost divorced from the work of his hand. But if you look closely, you can see a figure emerge from the landscape, her form as mutable as the plains themselves. Irvine’s choice of watercolor is key, as it is an inherently fluid medium, hard to control, subject to gravity and chance. The marbling effect is not one easily mastered; it requires understanding the interactions between oil-based paints on a water surface, and is achieved by floating colors on top of a viscous solution, manipulating them into patterns, before carefully laying paper to lift the design. This process mirrors the precarity of life on the plains. Just as the artist coaxed his image from a chaotic process, settlers attempted to wrest a living from a landscape that was itself subject to constant change. It is not the romanticized, settled territory but an impermanent and somewhat unstable rendering of nature. In Irvine’s work, the idea of progress and control is questioned, as the land and its inhabitants remain in flux.