VICTORIA, BC.- The absolute essence of Emily Carr’s work is the artist’s depiction of her surrounding landscape and the work’s evocation of her love of nature. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has turned the kaleidoscope on its Carr collection for another view of the artist’s work, this time making Carr’s interest in environmental issues the focus.

Picturing the Giants: The Changing Landscapes of Emily Carr offers a grouping of works that exhalts the majesty of trees as Carr found them, as well as paintings that depict human interference with their verdant vista.

“At the foundation of the exhibition is the question: ‘What would Carr think of today’s treatment of our forests?’” says AGGV chief curator Michelle Jacques.

In her writings, Carr noted “…second-growth trees, lusty and fine, tall-standing … useless trees that nobody cuts, trees ill-shaped and twisty that stood at the foot of those mighty arrow-straight monarchs long since chewed by steel teeth … chewed into utility, nailed into houses, churches, telephone poles...” as she considered the perceived contradiction between the spiritual nature of trees and how they can be used.

The exhibition features work from the AGGV’s Carr collection as well as four paintings borrowed from other galleries: British Columbia Trees, 1938-1939, Metchosin, c.1935, Wasteland (Logged Leavings), 1939, and Above the Gravel Pit, 1937.

This last work was done when she was camping in her caravan above the gravel pit in Metchosin. Carr wrote: “The predominating characteristic here, perhaps, is space, the great scoops out of the gravel pits, the wide scoop of sea (trees are not close), wide patches of that indescribable, lit-up, very live grass, thin, fine stuff that quivers over the earth…”