Alf Crossley: The Kootenays En Plein Air
An Abstract Impressionist-Expressionist in the Canadian Wilderness
Aug 21, 2008
Alf Crossley has been painting and drawing the distinctive landscapes of the south-central interior region of BC, primarily within the Kootenays and Okanagan, since the 1970s. Crossley's Abstract Impressionist-Expressionist style was honed at the Vancouver School of Art, under notable instructors Jack Shadbolt, Roy Kiyooka, Takao Tanabe, Bob Steele, Reg Holmes, Don Jarvis, and Lewis Mumford. He mainly works en plein air: outdoors in nature, not from photographs, in the Slocan Valley and near the Kootenay River around the urban triad of Nelson, Castlegar and New Denver.
Crossley's style is Impressionistic because it captures the flickering movement of light. Of Impressionism's original pioneers, he mentions Sisley and Manet at the fore, and it is that moment of life, that vibrant frequency of elements at play against the scenery, which motivates him to work outside in nature, in all weather conditions or changes of light.
His style is abstracted because he isn't interested in photographing nature in paint . Elements of realism are always there in some works more than others. It distinguishes his thick impastos from Paul-Émile Borduas, another Canadian Abstract-Expressionist who explored that technique.
It isn't what the physical eyes see that matters most to him. Expressionism, the other definitive characteristic of Crossley's art, comes out of how the marks he leaves across the canvas and paper connect with what he sees in his heart.
Crossley Loves Nature
"It starts with choosing the right spot,” Alf explains. “I’m up and out the door by seven or eight in the morning three or four days a week, no matter what. I take a drive and decide what I want to draw and paint, the scene and setting."
The West Kootenay region is filled with a temperate rainforest of tall, dark cedars. Mountains tower, dissected with such narrow valleys that hours of sunlight in the winter are scarce. It's hard to see past their round-shouldered slopes to the glaciers which cap them. Climb up to the alpine meadows, covered in summer with carpets of wildflowers, and the sources of its cold, deep lakes and rivers are revealed.
Alf carries all his supplies into this landscape. After a full day of painting and drawing---more, if he isn't threatened with exposure---he brings away drawings or paintings.
"I dress in a lot of layers. I will paint with my gloves on all year round as I use toxic substances. I’m such a tall, lanky fellow, the extra weight and layers don’t impede me. If the weather is good, I’ll take it all off. I like to paint barefoot, to be as close to the feeling of nature as possible.”
Born in Rossland, BC, a ski resort and mining town just above Trail, Crossley was "a climbing and hiking fool" according to his friend, actor and festival organizer, Barry Graham. He thought nothing of hiking up three mountain peaks a day, staying overnight at lookout stations when weather turned foul, or scrambling out onto an ice shelf to survey the lands far below. This boyhood and this breathtaking scenery inspired a deep love of nature in Crossley.
Wayne Boursos, the Hungarian-born painter who emigrated to Canada during the 1950s and became an art instructor at Crossley's high school in Trail, inspired him to paint. Shadbolt, his main instructor at VSA, showed how Abstract Expressionism could open up inner landscapes. These elements resulted in an impressive body of work.
Alf Crossley's story continues in the second part of this serial: The Kootenays in Brushstrokes.
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