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Wildewood Gallery features the art of Arne Roosman

October 28, 2015

By Nate Smelle

Arguably the most prolific artist residing in North Hastings, Arne Roosman has recently added another exhibition to his collection. His third show this year, Arne Roosman: Retrospective, is currently decorating the walls of the Wildewood Gallery in Maynooth. Mostly featuring paintings created during different periods in the artist’s career, Roosman added a peek into the origins of his creativity by including a handful of paintings created by his father Axel and his uncle Max.
“These paintings go but way back to the 1950s,” Roosman said pointing to his father’s paintings.
“I wanted to include my father and my uncle’s work to show people where I came from.”
Born in Tallinn, Estonia, Roosman studied art in Sweden before moving to Canada in 1957. Since moving to Bancroft in 1988 he has not only shared his talents with the community as a featured artist in the Art Gallery of Bancroft and A Place for the Arts, he has also been an important contributor to local theatre designing and creating sets for the Bancroft Theatre Guild.
At 84 years of age Roosman continues to paint on a daily basis. Finding inspiration for his work in the beauty of the natural world, music and the human form, he also draws on mythology when he creates.
“Every painting tells us a story,” he said.
“This painting is of the Goddess Ilmatar. She is the Goddess of creation in Finnish and Estonian mythology. She created the world. Here she is in the process of creating snow.”
He explained that the name Ilmatar comes from the Finnish word ilma which loosely translated means weather and air. Like the word Tao in Chinese philosophy though, ilma also has many different meanings.
“Ilma is a word that goes right through the language describing very different things,” Roosman said.
“You really have to understand the language to know which ilma is which.”
To help his audience understand the dynamic meaning of this word and concept Roosman wrote a poem entitled, How Ilmatar created snow, that hangs on the wall beside his work of art.
It reads
“Out of her voice a ribbon
she whispered
into a veil she braided the
sound
Beckoned flock to rest
on white blanket
kindled in the stars to dance on
the snow
Song of hope for the nightfall
dreamer
Sleep for a day she dreamed
for the sun.”

With work featured in galleries and private collections around the world, Roosman is much more than a local treasure. Arne Roosman: Retrospective is an exhibit not to be missed. The collection will be on display at the Wildewood Gallery in Maynooth for the next month.
For more information about the Wildewood Gallery’s upcoming shows visit their Facebook page, or contact (613) 338-3134.