Art And Science Meet At Sydenham's Grace Centre

Feb 26, 2014

It's not often that one hears the words “art” and “science” in the same sentence. But that is often the case when it comes to painter Aleta Karstad, who spoke on February 22 at the Grace Centre in Sydenham.

Karstad is one of three artists participating in a group show there titled “Local Reflections on Art and Nature”. The show was organized by Southern Frontenac Community Services’ Grace Centre Arts Committee in partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the show goes a long way in explaining the close relationship between art, nature and science.

Karstad and her husband Fred Schueler, who is a naturalist, herpetologist, scholar and the research curator at the Bishop Mills Natural History Centre in Bishop Mills, Ontario, are currently working with the Nature Conservancy of Canada surveying the conservancy’s five newly purchased properties in the Frontenac Arch.

Schueler is conducting biological inventories of the sites and Karstad is painting the flora, fauna and landscapes there. The couple have been working as a team for years, with Schueler researching and Karstad painting the natural world. They have published numerous books based on their findings. The work they are doing with the NCC will assist staff with their long-term management plans for the Frontenac Arch lands. Currently Karstad is creating paintings of the Arch lands and she is displaying and selling them on her website (aletakarstad.com), with the proceeds helping to fund Schueler's research. It is these paintings, some still wet, that were on display and for sale at the Grace Centre show and they demonstrate the prowess of this artist, who for decades has been focusing her sights on the natural world.

Karstad received her formal art training at the Central Technical School in Toronto and in 1972 began work in biological illustration with the National Museum of Canada. Since that time she and her husband have published numerous books about their research and findings and in 2008 set up the model of how they work together, which Karstad calls the Art and Science Model. “Though we officially named our model in 2008, in reality we have always worked that way," Karstad explained at her talk. “It is traditional to pay money for completed artworks, whereas scientists must themselves actually pay money to publish their research. We do research linked with art, art linked with research..... and we let the art support the research.”

Not only does the art support the research, but the works themselves stand alone as subtle and masterful depictions of nature’s bounty. Karstad is an experienced and talented painter and has the ability to create simultaneously dynamic and subtle paintings whether portraying a large, expansive vista as with her “Loughborough Meadows” or in her much smaller work titled “Wild Cucumber”, which depicts two delicate pods clinging precariously to their winter vine. Her feel for colour is direct and vibrant and her attention to the tiniest details make for beautifully subtle and delicate paintings.

In a third piece titled “Fern Pelt of the Frontenacs”, Karstad zooms in on a section of mosses, ferns and lichens that grow in the Arch lands. She said it is one of her favorite paintings and she used the subject of that particular painting as a perfect metaphor in explaining her and her husband’s model of working. “In our work, Fred and I depend on each other like the medulla and the alga that makes up a lichen. The alga, being green, makes food from light, and the medulla, which cannot feed itself, supplies a body, like Fred with his scientific body of knowledge, building on his database. This knowledge informs my art, carries me about on field trips, and in return, the art brings in the money for the research.”

Karstad and Schueler are a perfect match for the NCC and their work will go a very long way in helping the organization demonstrate to others the magical and diverse beauty of the Frontenac Arch. The show “Local Reflections on Art and Nature" will be up at the Grace Centre until April 29 and admission is free. The hall is open most weekdays from 10 am – 4 pm but it is best to call the Southern Frontenac Community Services’ office at 613-376-6477 ext. 205 to confirm that your visit does not coincide with regularly scheduled activities there. For those who missed Karstad's talk, a second reception and artists’ talk will take place at the Grace Centre on Saturday March 8 from 1 -2:30pm. The Grace Centre is located at 4295 Stagecoach Road in Sydenham