Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader
There’s a new book out on the art of Dale Auger, published by Heritage House. The publisher got hold of The Leader last week to let us know about it, and would have mailed a copy of Medicine Paint: The Art of Dale Auger, if the postal delivery people weren’t out on strike.
However, information and some of the images are available for viewing online, including the following, from a promotional piece:
The book, it says, “is an epic collection of Auger’s best work, reproduced in glorious colour and reflecting the evolution of the artist’s distinctive style. Including a revealing look back at his life and professional development, the book is a stunning tribute to this master artist, who passed away in 2008.”
Auger was born in High Prairie in 1958, and grew up on the south shore of Lesser Slave Lake.
A Bigstone Cree Nation member, Auger went to school in Faust. He only got as far as Grade 6 in his first attempt, but later went back to school and took it all the way to a doctoral degree in Education, from the University of Calgary. He eventually settled, with his wife Grace and their children, in Bragg Creek. Their daughter Sekwan appeared in the film, Legends of the Fall, in 1994.
A story about that appeared in the Lakeside Leader, back in 1995 or 96.
Auger studied education, but along the way, he practiced art, much of which can be seen reproduced in the new book.
Here’s more of what Heritage House has to say about Auger in its promotion of Medicine Paint:
“Dale Auger was a gifted interpreter of Cree culture, using the cross-cultural medium of art to portray scenes from the everyday to the sacred and dissemble stereotypes about Indigenous Peoples. His use of bold, bright colours in oil painting explore the intricate links between spirituality and the natural laws of the land. Birds, beasts, and human forms are carried from the dreamworld onto canvas, their spirits channelled through his paintbrush and presented in brilliant yellows, mystic blues, vibrant reds, and swirls of black.”
This post was originally published on here
