Thomas Hirschmann: "Mitch Robertson at Samplesize" Now Magazine. August 14-20, 2003

Wild Yonders: Mitch Robertson at Samplesize

Landscape art is so very Canadian. While the Tom Thomson show at the Art Gallery of Ontario is the big summer blockbuster exhibition, a number of smaller shows reveal different perspectives on the great outdoors.

The most ingenious landscapes are by Mitch Robertson. Like thousands before him, he has painted a series of watercolours of Scotland's Loch Ness. What makes these compelling is that Robertson has based his work on stills from Web cameras pointed at the lake 24/7 in hopes of capturing the monster in its travels. What's even more interesting is that they're being shown at samplesize, artist Kelly Mark's Internet gallery.

At low-quality digital resolution (a hindrance for Web galleries of all kinds), it's difficult to see the subtleties of the watercolours. But that's great because they look like still webcam photographs once more.

In mythology there was this fellow Sisyphus who was made to push a boulder up a hill, let it roll down and then push it back up again, down, up, forever and ever. There's something very attractive about art that volunteers for that sort of adventure.

- Thomas Hirschmann