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Countryman — A new exhibition opened in the main salon of the Chapel Gallery Friday, featuring 60 paintings and illustrations by renowned artist and naturalist Robert David Symons. The travelling exhibition, titled Countryman - R.D. Symons, is produced by the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery and will be exhibit at the Chapel Gallery until April 30. The artist who was born, raiased and educated in England. Coming from a privileged home, his formal education included drawing, painting and study of birds. But he dreamed of becoming a cowboy and in 1914 arrived by train in Maple Creek. While working on the cattle range, living the lifestyle of a cowboy, Symons would draw the prairie landscape. He became one of the first people to illustrate and catalogue the animal and plant species of Saskatchewan. He eventually became Saskatchewan’s first game ward, serving the Cypress Hills and Battlefords region. He later undertook work at the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, now the The Royal Saskatchewan Museum, where his paintings were the backdrops for the museum’s dioramas. exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue that has become a published biography with 70 full colour images, written by close friend, artist and curator Terry Fenton. Photo by Jayne Foster
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