| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Harry Savage is a landscape painter who produces delicate, small works of prairie scenes and seascapes, using watercolours, acrylics, and printmaking, primarily serigraphy. Over the years, he has developed an approach that emphasizes the strong horizontal composition of the land, horizon, and sky, and deftly captures the subtle natural shifts typical of the open prairie.
Savage’s watercolours are fluid and timeless, and he works with carefully-laid horizontal washes, exploiting the controlled bleeds. His focus is on impression, light, and strength of colour, and he aspires to react directly to the mood of the land, without putting too much detail into the landforms. He often challenges the notion that the prairie is a subtle terrain by using strong light and colour in his work.
Savage studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design and received his BFA in 1961. He was an active member of Edmonton’s cultural community, teaching for many years at the University of Alberta Faculty of Extension, and co-founding the artist-run gallery Latitude 53 in 1973.
Savage’s work has been shown extensively throughout Canada, and is represented in a number of public collections including the Art Gallery of Alberta, the University of Calgary, the Burnaby Art Gallery and the Alberta College of Art and Design. He lives and paints in British Columbia.
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