Prairie Painter

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Nicki Ault, “Silver Afternoon,” 2019

oil on panel, 20” x 20”

Landscape artist Nicki Ault paints Saskatchewan’s big skies, but also its winding rivers and verdant meadows.

The variety in her subject matter is matched by approaches that slide from the carefully observed Silver Afternoon, which captures dramatic back lighting on a cloudy day, to the looser and more impressionistic Final Heat of the Day, which offers a different view of Lake Waskesiu in Prince Albert National Park.

“I bounce around my Saskatchewan landscapes,” says Ault, who has a dozen works on view at the Assiniboia Gallery in Regina until March 31.

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Nicki Ault, “Final Heat of the Day,” 2019

oil on panel, 10” x 10”

Ault, who lives in Saskatoon, has been painting seriously since 2010, when her second son entered school.

She got her first taste of painting around 2000 at a weeklong landscape course at Emma Lake through what was then the Kenderdine campus of the University of Saskatchewan. The instructor was Degen Lindner, whose father, Ernest, was known nationally for his meticulous drawings and prints, primarily of nature.

Ault has also studied with Saskatchewan painters Clint Hunker and Iris Hauser.

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Nicki Ault, “Secret Path,” 2019

oil on canvas, 30” x 24”

She paints outside during the summer, but also in the studio from her own photographs, especially during the long prairie winter.

Ault, who is also represented by the Darrell Bell Gallery in Saskatoon and the Webster Gallery in Calgary, says she is drawn to landscapes because she is interested in capturing the visual effects of light. She also wants to express the sense of being outdoors.

“I love the feeling of being in nature,” she says.

Ault is a fan of the daily painting challenges now popular online. She’s in the midst of her fourth month-long challenge, and is completing a six-inch-by-six-inch painting each day. She says it  has boosted her learning curve.

“You can really progress a lot as an artist.”

Nicki Ault’s paintings are on display at the Assiniboia Gallery in Regina from March 1 to March 31, 2019.