Falling Stars Made Of Ashes
About Falling Stars Made of Ashes, the artist states:
Lightning is exceptionally rare in the mountains on the west coast and, despite living there for several years, I don’t remember witnessing anything close to an electrical storm - certainly not like the ones I grew up with on the prairies.
Fire was the lens through which I saw the forest this year. I’d spent a whole month on Vancouver Island chasing and being chased by fire. So when I phoned home to northwest Ontario to let my dad know I was on the way back, my heart sank when he told me about the heavy smoke filling the yard around my studio.
On June 27th, I woke up early to get the first ferry over to the mainland, then started heading east with hopes of making it to Golden before nightfall.
I was somewhere between Salmon Arm and Revelstoke when I first heard it:
Crash, Crush, Groan, Rumble.
Winding through the tallest peaks of the mountains, switchbacks and single lanes:
Bang, Crack, Snap, Boom.
It was just outside of Malakwa that I finally pulled over the truck on the side of the road. Alone in the dark, I cried as I watched lightning sear open the sky. Ash fell instead of rain.
The next morning while driving through Lake Louise, I heard a report on the local radio: “All water bombers grounded due to electrical storms.”
I hadn’t seen a bird since Merritt.
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Friday, July 19th, 2024 was a big day. I knew it was the day that representatives for Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa were viewing my painting “Thunder” in person to confirm they’d like to go ahead with purchasing the painting and I kept thinking about what the conversation they were having sounded like.
It was also another day that I woke up to thick smoke under a red hazy sky around my studio.
I had a call at noon with Sarah from the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation about how the Art Auction for Old Growth is coming together. Before we got into any of
the auction details, Sarah shared with me about the terrifying night she’d just had.
From the porch of her home just south of the place I painted in “Thunder,” she could see forest fires popping up across the lake as a rainless electrical storm hammered the mountainside. She told me that this summer, there was increased use of waterbomber helicopters because of how nimble they are compared to airplanes. But the helicopters had also been grounded due to the electrical storm.
I didn’t tell her that in that exact same moment, my heart was in Ottawa, crying for help for people just like Sarah, in front of a government audience.
Later that afternoon, I started burning a small shard of ancient cedar into a bowl, crushing and then filtering the soot into fine black powder for mixing into my next painting.
It was in this moment, at 4:07pm, that I coincidentally got an unsolicited email from a grad student at Carlton University - also in Ottawa. She’s writing a thesis for a “Climate Change” masters, titled “After the Forest Burns: Material Stories of Climate Change.”
She wanted to talk about why I keep mixing ashes into my paint…
The truth is that I never really thought too much about the ash when I first started using it, it was just the most obvious thing: to make a painting with the very material that the painting is about. To make a painting that is, in every way possible, a material and visual reflection of our reality.
It's going to take me a while to get used to the fact that a painting I made in order to scream “HELP!” is now going to silently do so on behalf of this country, hanging on some far-away wall for diplomat eyes.
That night, I dreamed I was driving through Malakwa again, lightning still searing open the sky. But as often happens in dreams, one little detail had changed. Instead of ash falling where there should be rain, I woke up seeing stars.
Falling stars made of ashes. - Kyle Scheurmann
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Canadian artist Kyle Scheurmann is a contemporary painter known for his immersive landscape paintings that examine the evolving relationship between wilderness and environmental crisis. His work captures forests, rivers, and remote ecosystems shaped by climate change, wildfire, and human intervention, making his paintings highly sought after by collectors of contemporary Canadian art.
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1988, Scheurmann completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at OCAD University in Toronto in 2013. He went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver in 2018, where he was named Valedictorian. His academic training laid the foundation for a practice that combines technical precision with a strong conceptual focus on ecology, conservation, and contemporary landscape painting.
Working primarily in oil and mixed media on linen, Scheurmann’s paintings are grounded in direct observation and lived experience. Since 2019, he has maintained studios in remote, wooded locations, allowing him to document the incremental effects of climate change while actively participating in environmental conservation efforts. This direct engagement with the land informs his work, resulting in detailed, atmospheric landscape paintings that balance visual richness with a sense of urgency.
A pivotal moment in Scheurmann’s career came in 2021 when he participated in the Eden Grove Artist Residency at the Fairy Creek blockades on unceded Pacheedaht territory. During his four-month stay, he worked not only as an artist but also as a journalist and legal witness, documenting the conflict between law enforcement and Forest Protectors advocating for the preservation of old-growth forests. This experience continues to shape the ethical and political dimensions of his contemporary paintings.
Scheurmann remains actively engaged in environmental advocacy. He is aligned with the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation, where he founded and organizes the Art Auction for Old-Growth, supporting conservation initiatives through contemporary art. He has also contributed to the development of an environmentally focused residency at the Harvest Moon Learning Centre in Manitoba, collaborating with regenerative farmers to explore sustainable approaches to land stewardship.
His work has been supported through numerous residencies, including Island Mountain Arts Centre in British Columbia, the Georgian Bay Land Trust in Ontario, Falcon Trails Artist Residency in Manitoba, and Kunstort ELEVEN Artspace in Germany. These experiences continue to inform the evolving imagery and ecological narratives within his contemporary landscape paintings.
Today, Kyle Scheurmann’s paintings are exhibited across Canada and are increasingly recognized within the market for contemporary Canadian art. His work resonates with collectors seeking landscape paintings that not only capture the beauty of the natural world, but also reflect the urgency of climate change and environmental preservation. Explore available Kyle Scheurmann paintings to acquire a compelling example of contemporary Canadian landscape art.
Scheurmann’s paintings are highly textured, with the artist whipping the paint to create dimensional surfaces. In some pieces, Scheurmann will incorporate diverse organic material, gathered from the lands he depicts, into his paint. “Materially, I have collected samples of distressed landscapes to use as painting mediums, such as charred tree and animal remains from wildfires, dried fireweed, sand and crushed stone pigments. Learning to employ diverse organic material into my paint yielded new ways of making lustre, texture and opacity while creating a physical link between the painting on the wall and the lived experience of the land.” - Kyle Scheurmann
Scheurmann’s works on linen and canvas are presented unframed with unfinished linen sides.