Woodlands-style painter Jackie Traverse opens art gallery in Winnipegs North End

Visual artist Jackie Traverse hopes her new art gallery will connect with residents of Winnipeg’s North End neighbourhood. It’s a full circle moment for the Ojibwe painter from Lake St. Martin First Nation in Manitoba, who grew up partly with her grandmother just a street over from where “Creative Native” now stands. “I have a lot of good memories here from childhood,” says Traverse, “and typically people don’t associate art with the North End, so I’m really glad to be bringing art to the [area].” Jackie Traverse opened a gallery and studio space in Winnipeg called “Creative Native.” Photo: Sav Jonsa Traverse mainly focuses on Woodlands-style acrylic and oil paintings – sometimes using materials like wood and drums as her canvas. She’s become increasingly successful at her craft over the past several years, thanks, in part, to her artistic endeavours like teaching painting classes across Manitoba, partnering with Manitoba-based Mondetta to create a clothing line,  and making her textile designs widely available for ribbon skirts  See More: Clothing collection based on reconciliation – video See More: Huge demand for Ojibway artist’s fabric designs – video She has even ventured into television with her new APTN show “Paint Night with Jackie Traverse”, where she instructs viewers how to paint using the Seven Sacred Teachings as artistic inspiration. Traverse says all of these opportunities have provided her with the means to buy her own studio and gallery. “It wasn’t really on my list of things I wanted to do at first, I just really wanted to paint and make my living as an artist,” says Traverse, who began to outgrow her old studio as her completed work began to pile up, “But the past five years have been really incredible – so I was able to afford a gallery.” A woman studies art by Jackie Traverse in the artist’s new Winnipeg gallery. Photo: Sav Jonsa Though she has more than 50,000 followers admiring photos of her artistry on social media, Traverse says a gallery is the best way for someone to get the full effect of a piece’s brush strokes, textures and vivid hues. “You can’t capture the colours and the intensity of the work through a photo. It’s so much better seeing it in person,” she says, “For people to be able to come here and just even look at the art would be huge for the area and for me.” Traverse has already begun hosting painting classes at Creative Native, and hopes to expand her skills to hand building with clay now that she has the space to experiment to her heart’s content. Continue Reading