Coming from a construction background in West Hawk Lake, Aron Coates has been making the shift from construction to design and is currently working on his Masters in architecture at the University of Manitoba. Aron has built a beautiful portfolio consisting of a wide range of construction, sculptures, paintings, and design/drafting. Much of his work is inspired by and relates to the Whiteshell Provincial Park, particularly from hunting and fishing trips. Most of Aron’s artwork begins with the use of photography, and is then transformed into paintings. Here are a few examples of his Whiteshell-inspired work:

Waiting for Ducks

These photos and paintings are from a duck hunting trip in the Whiteshell. These images are perfect examples of Aron’s ability to replicate photos with artwork. The first painting captures the early morning mist rising off the lake as they boat to their hunting spot, and the second painting portrays sitting in the bulrushes and waiting for ducks to fly overhead in the early morning sunrise.

Trout

This trout fish sculpture was done in winter 2009 using a 8″ radius ball of plaster. It was Aron’s first sculpture and may be his best to date. He began the project by poring liquid plaster into a plastic bag.

This painting replicates a lake trout caught during an October deer hunting trip on George Lake.

Artistic Building Solution

These are two beautiful post foundation sculptures that are in-progress at Caddy Lake. The inspirations of these sculptures stems from a passion of fishing in the Whiteshell and from the concept of integrating water and fish. The sculptures are of two popular species in the area: Lake trout (see top photo) and walleye.
The project started from carving away at a solid piece of plaster. With this project, Aron intended on using the two different species of fish and the flowing water as a geometric pattern by using deep cuts into the clay.You can see more of Aron’s work at aroncoates.com.