Coastal British Columbia: Painting by Thomas Kero
Coastal Giant, pencil and india ink on paper
Thomas Kero is an artist originally from Vancouver, and now based in the Heiltsuk village of Bella Bella, on BC’s westernmost coastline. In his practice, Thomas is primarily a painter, capturing the landscape of coastal British Columbia with an aesthetic that hearkens to the Group of Seven.
I really love Thomas’ series of Crows and Ravens. The works in this series capture not only the titular animals in their natural habitats, but serve to present a beautiful cross-section of BC wildlife and forest, with the varying backgrounds offering just as much detail and interest as the central corvid figures.
Thomas’ paintings do a great job of using saturated colour and moments of rough texture to evoke an overall sense of the landscape that they capture. More than simply documenting a certain place and time, these works offer the viewer the opportunity to experience a moment through the artist’s eyes.
