Norman Yates

"Western history and western landscape are bound inexplicably. The land is part and parcel of our history and our history has to do absolutely with the land. For me the land is our basic metaphor."

The free space of Canada’s prairies is a prominent influence on the life
and work of Norman Yates. Born in Calgary, Alberta, and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force before completing studies at the Ontario College of Art in 1950. An educator as well as an artist, he taught art at the University of Alberta for thirty-five years.
During his career, he has been recognized for his skills as an educator a well as his involvement in local fine arts communities, receiving a number of awards for visual arts, service, and teaching. Despite now living on the sometimes-claustrophobic west coast of British Columbia, his time immersed in the vast space of the prairies inspires his current works, which focus on the space that flows between the surfaces of a landscape.