As an abstract landscape painter, Irma’s inspiration continues to be the prairie landscape and the horizon line. To grow up on a small Saskatchewan farm is to inhabit the landscape completely. The weather and how it impacts crops is crucial to farm life in the prairies and always incorporates extremes: blizzards, thunderstorms, northern lights and always the overarching expansiveness of sky. The landscape is a felt experience for Irma, always encountered in nature and later recreated in the quiet of the studio, she is deeply influenced by place. “For me, art is always about recreating my own journey — making art true to my ideas, real and honest. I summon memories, telling the same story over and over again. There are no people in my work, but there is often a suggestion of their presence, a trace of humanity. Self, place, belonging and the land have long been central themes in my work.”
