At left is a photograph of one of the crooked aspen trees at Alticane, Sask. At right is an image of the painting that Ken Dalgarno created using the photograph as a basis. Submitted photographs
At the edge of a field near the tiny community of Alticane, Sask., there is a grove of aspen trees that has caught the creative imagination of Moose Jaw painter Ken Dalgarno. These aspens don't stand straight and tall; rather, they are stooped and crooked, their trunks twisting and turning out. "When you walk through the trees, there's a magical feel to them, like you're in an enchanted forest in a Grimm's fairy tale," said Dalgarno. "The trees are haunting and exhilarating all at once." Dalgarno has painted several of them on canvas, calling the series of paintings "The Crooked Trees of Alticane." Dalgarno said the trees are so unbelievable that he took up photography to document them on film. When his paintings are displayed, so are some of the photographs so people can see the grove is real. Dalgarno first heard of the trees early last year when he was working at the Moose Jaw Public Library. A woman in the library showed him some pictures of the trees on her digital camera. Dalgarno decided he needed to see them for himself. In April 2008, he made the trip to Alticane, near Hafford. "I was amazed at what I saw. They were so magnificent. I just had to show them to others." He has been returning to the grove every month since, photographing the trees in every season. Using the photographs as inspiration, he creates his paintings using a technique called impasto, which is brushing the paint thickly on the canvas so it stands out from the surface. The paintings aren't an exact rendering of the photographs, however. Although Dalgarno starts with a picture, the different colours and impasto technique he uses renders an abstract effect. Dalgarno has created 10 paintings of the trees so far, and plans to continue creating paintings for the series for another two years. The paintings that currently exist are on display at the Fringe Gallery in Edmonton, and Dalgarno has received expressions of interest from other galleries to display the series. Mandy Higgins can be reached at 691-1264.
Explanations for the twisting trees Over the years, Hafford area residents have speculated on a variety of reasons for the twisting and turning trees that Ken Dalgarno has recreated in his "The Crooked Trees of Alticane" series of paintings. The reasons offered range from soil contamination to a meteorite crashing in the area. The grove of crooked trees stands mere metres away from aspens that are straight. But Bill Remphrey, a professor of horticulture and plant biology in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba, has a different explanation: the crooked stems are likely the result of a genetic mutation. When material from the Alticane trees was replanted in Manitoba, the crookedness was maintained. - Higgins
