Described by the late Edmonton reviewer/critic Gilbert Bouchard as ‘probably Alberta’s finest landscape painter’, Tom Gale has been painting for 40 years, the last 25 in Edmonton.
His work is in the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, in corporate collections such as Canadian Utilities Ltd., Toronto Dominion Art Collection and Atco Electric, as well as in many private collections.
I have been painting the western Canadian landscape for over 35 years. I am primarily self taught. Some influences are other Canadians such as Tom Thomson, David Milne, the group of seven and Emily Carr. There are two themes within my work. The paintings express my spiritual connection to the earth while my human isolation is ever present. A dialectic of seemingly opposing forces draws me on wards.
Painting is solitary a confrontation of the silent land, in a silent studio. My work is heuristic: a journey towards self-awareness and communication, with the hope that others will find a sense of commonalty and resonance in my work from which they can rediscover themselves and their connections to the land.