While driving across Canada as a young child, moving from Montreal to B.C., Craig Yeats was fascinated with what would become the primary subject matter of his impressionistic paintings: natural wild landscapes.
He focused specifically on his West Coast surroundings, becoming known for his large scale freeform seascapes, mountain ranges, coast lines and city harbours.
Yeats opened his own gallery and work space, the Yeats Studio & Gallery 35 years ago. The studio has since moved from West Bay to Dundarave Village in West Vancouver and expanded to showcase a small group of local artists, each with their distinct and unique style. Having his own studio has been instrumental to Yeats’ development as an artist, affording him the opportunity to experiment freely.
Ensuring that his paintings “say something” is essential to Yeats’ artistic mission. The diverse selection of spaces in which his work has been exhibited, sold, and sought after demonstrates Yeats’ success in this regard.
Such spaces include a local gallery also selling Group of Seven’s early works while he was still in high school, the large alcoves inside the Four Seasons Hotel and many private and corporate collections across Canada, North America, Europe and Australasia.
Throughout his career, Yeats’ work has evolved to focus on light vitality as well as visual acuity and impact. He has transitioned from a water-colourist to a distinguished acrylic master while maintaining an avid attention to composition; always striving to create drama and atmosphere through a careful balance between subject and background, an appreciation he acquired while completing a Masters of Fine Art at the University of North Carolina.
Yeats is known for his thick and freeform impressionistic esthetic created with a palette knife; a technique that developed accidentally when attempting to cover up an old painting. He discovered that the knife simplified the paintings and the thick layer of paint it applied complemented and enhanced his approach.
This style enables Yeats to capture nature’s movement in his works; whether driving the Sea to Sky highway, sailing the Pacific, or flying over the Rockies, he has always been particularly inspired with the visuals of transportation and possesses an acute photographic like memory of such moments.
Yeats’ artistic influences share the diversity of his artistic career, including water-colourists such as Winslow Homer, West Vancouver’s Gordon Smith, who inspired Yeats to work large scale, the European Impressionists, and abstract expressionists such as Kline, Still and Rothko.
Yeats’ latest work, entitled Changing Horizons, will be on display at Yeats Studio & Gallery, 2402 Marine Drive, West Vancouver, B.C. until April 18 (yeatsgallery.ca).
