Celebrating Earth Day Through Art – Paintings by Brandy Saturley

Speak to any artist, from the visual to the performing arts, and they will tell you the same thing: at the root of it all, there is nature. Earth Day Art: It surrounds us, shapes us, and offers an endless vocabulary of form, colour, movement, and story. Even in portraiture or still life, the influence of the natural world is never far from the surface. It is the quiet force beneath everything.

From the curl of a wave to the arc of a bird’s wing, from the delicate structure of a flower to the electric brilliance of a peacock’s feathers, nature writes itself into the artist’s hand. It moves through the variegated greens of forests, settles into the worn textures of coastal rock, and lingers in light, shadow, and atmosphere.

While I have never considered myself a traditional landscape painter, the presence of land, water, and sky runs consistently through my work. Landscape, in my paintings, becomes something lived rather than observed. It is a stage for memory, symbolism, and narrative. A place where experience and imagination meet.

These paintings are visual stories shaped by my time moving through Canada and beyond, absorbing its textures, its contradictions, and its quiet moments. In each work, Earth is not simply a backdrop, but a central figure, holding the story together.

To mark Earth Day 2026, I am sharing ten paintings that reflect this ongoing dialogue with the natural world.

BALANCE: Life in balance – the elevation of the spirit through the landscape, and in this case, the Northern landscapes, with icebergs, polar bears and aurora skies. Whether it be Alaska or Newfoundland, these icebergs are precious natural resources. This piece was presented at the Society of Canadian Artists 50th Anniversary exhibition in Toronto in 2019. The painting graced the cover of the exhibition catalogue, now on file with the National Gallery of Canada, library and archives.

DANDI: This painting came to me after a road trip through the Rocky Mountains in June. The dandelion lined highways and the snow capped chiseled mountain peaks appearing around each new turn. I began with this inspiration, using my photographs from the trip, then as they do, this painting began to take on a life of it’s own through intuitive decisions. I like to set the tone in my studio for each piece, the tone in this instance was set through multiple aural stimuli; the sounds drifting up from my neighbors suite as she played ‘Claire de Lune’ on her baby grand, the documentary ‘Innsaei’ about intuition played a few days in the background and the final strokes and colours were influenced by music from Indigenous DJ’s, A Tribe Called Red. All this stimuli filtering through my senses to my temporal lobe and back out onto the canvas.

YIN RISING: This painting is a quiet myth unfolding inside a single frame, as if nature itself decided to take on a human memory and hold it in its branches.

At the center, a dark, almost earthen figure stands with arms extended, neither fully human nor fully tree. Its body merges seamlessly into a network of branches that spread outward like veins or lightning, suggesting growth, connection, and perhaps a kind of ancestral reach. The figure has no defined face, which turns it into a vessel rather than an individual, something universal, something that could belong to anyone standing still long enough in the forest.

Anchoring the lower portion is a large, luminous magnolia flower. Its petals fold inward and outward at once, suggesting both protection and emergence. It feels intimate, almost bodily, like a heart or a breath made visible. The flower introduces tenderness into a composition that might otherwise feel imposing, grounding the piece in something organic and alive.

The entire scene is held within a curved, almost shield-like border, giving the work the presence of an emblem or a sacred object. It reads like a symbol of balance between forces: human and nature, growth and rootedness, concealment and revelation.

There’s a quiet tension here, but not conflict. More like a negotiation between identity and environment, where the self dissolves into something larger and, in doing so, becomes more complete.

ALLURE OF MAUI: a symbolic landscape of the mind’s eye, this painting is all about the lush tropical beauty of Maui. This piece features Iao valley, hibiscus, plumeria, taro, and lush palm frond shadows. Begun in 2018 after a trip to Maui and re-tracing the footsteps of American painter Georgia O’ Keeffe on the island. This is a modern pop art representation of the allure that is Maui. This painting was completed in 2022.

Earth Day Art Continued

MOUNT TEMPLE: I painted a series of mountain peaks in the Canadian Rockies in super-saturated pop art colours focusing on the forms the shadows made on the mountain. Each tell their story of Earth and their grand presence on the landscape.

BEACH HOUSE: If you have been to the west coast you have seen these structures on the beach, built from logs and driftwood. They are places to play and seek shelter from the elements. Beach House.

ONLY THE BLUE JAY KNOWS: Some say I am a visual storyteller, the question to you is, are you drawn to this painting because of my story or yours? Capturing the spirit of the landscape and the nature that reigns.

IMAGINE CANOE: A spiritual landscape at Lake Louise. A Blackfoot tribal chief in regalia and headdress stands at the head vantage point of Lake Louise, towards the glacier. A canoe of red with name inscribed ‘Imagine’. A stack of rocks that resembles a person in the foreground, another red canoe in the distance. Two eagles fly high in the sky above the vortex point of the glacier. The lake is depicted in summer, with tropical turquoise colours and uncovered mountains and trees. Imagine Lake Louise, imagine Peace.

HIGH TIDE: Two red wool blankets with blue stripes blow rapidly in the wind with a backdrop of crashing waves and high tide. A blend of realism in the foreground against an abstract background.

SPIRITED ISLAND: a lone red canoe, an elusive island in Banff National Park, the silhouette of a moose, a glowing sky at sunset – celebrating nature in Canada.

To explore these works further and view available paintings, visit my website.