Daron Letts
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 15/05) - As a child, Jennifer Walden used to share wonderful weekends with her grandmother. She'd sit in the shade of her grandma's apple tree and paint in acrylics on an old wooden easel that once belonged to her grandfather.

Jennifer Walden's oil portraits of elders are available for viewing at Nor Art Gallery.

Walden still loves the outdoors. She still has a deep respect for elders. But today she paints mostly in oils and pastels.

Walden's art education may have sprouted in her grandmother's yard, but it didn't stop growing there. She moved around the world with her mom, first living in Tanzania and Botswana in her early teens, then in Southern India where she completed high school. That's when she began her serious study of art.

A teacher in Tamil Nadu recognized her artistic passion and abandoned the traditional art curriculum. She set Walden in front of a giant canvas and told her to fill it in four months.

Back in Canada, Walden studied art at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. She later finished a degree in theatre and set design at the University of Ottawa. After that, she left the country again.

In Cuzo, Peru, she studied with an artist who painted wildlife using natural pigments from the rainforest.

She returned to Southern India to study temple painting, a traditional style often used for ornate murals.

Now living in Yellowknife, Walden combines her diverse artistic knowledge to express her observations of the North. Her muskox come right off the canvas, their woolly coats built from thick layers of paint.

Her muskox mural can be seen on the wall of the Public Service Alliance of Canada building on 49th Street.

She is currently repainting a caribou she completed months ago. The first layer of paint leaves exciting lines and textures as she slathers new paint on the canvas with her palette knife.

Walden carries a small canvas when canoeing on Northern lakes and rivers. She paints little landscapes she later recreates on large canvases back in her old town studio.

Walden's most emotionally engaging works depict the dignity and wisdom of elders. Experience's written on their faces in beautiful pastel wrinkles and oil paint shadows.

"There's beauty in the people and the culture in the North," she said. "From my travels and experiences, I have learned that elders hold the knowledge."

Some of Walden's Northern portraits are on display at Nor Art Gallery this month. It's her second display there this year.

"We don't have many artists who work with oil," said gallery manager Margaret Nazon.

"Walden's colours are earthy and eye-catching. Her works are professional, well-finished and very attractive."

Later this year, Walden plans to paint elders from different cultures around the world - and she will do it on that old wooden easel given to her by her grandmother.