Craig’s artistic foundation began in photography and deepened through oil painting, a medium he learned alongside his father. His experience behind the camera sharpened his sensitivity to light and texture, qualities that now play a defining role in his painted landscapes.
Each piece begins with photographic studies of a specific location, which serve as the foundation for translating real-world observation into expressive, sensory experience.
Craig’s brushwork channels the ephemeral forces of nature, capturing its clouds, rising heat, and the subtle interplay of light across vast water. The result is a body of work that feels both grounded in place and alive with movement.
The works in First Light are meditations on the atmosphere and power of the natural world. From the softness of morning mist to the bold sweep of an impending storm, Craig captures fleeting moments with a painter’s intuition and a photographer’s eye.
His richly textured surfaces echo the land itself, inviting viewers to feel the weight and stillness of each scene. Through this interplay of medium and subject, Craig captures the invisible forces that bind nature together.
First Light marks a personal and artistic homecoming for Craig, as he returns to oil painting after years devoted to photography. It stands as both a tribute to his family’s artistic legacy and a declaration of his own voice.
Through these works, Craig demonstrates the enduring power of traditional painting to express the awe, fragility, and mystery of the natural world. We are invited to witness not only the light that illuminates the land, but the artist’s reverence for it.
Curator
Haruka Toyoda
Jordan Craig grew up in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in a family of artists and painters, surrounded by the rugged beauty of Canada’s far eastern coast. Moving to Ottawa as a young adult, he first pursued his passion for visual arts through photographic film development, experimenting in his own darkroom, and learning from the results. This passion grew into a long career in photography, with his work becoming widely collected.
As the son of a celebrated oil painter, Craig was drawn back to the medium that shaped his childhood. Painting alongside his father and immersing himself in the traditions of oil painting became a journey of determination and passion. His work, created with traditional oils, evokes an old world, almost scientific curiosity. Creating long building clouds of rain, rising heat, and capturing the invisible threads that bind the natural world together. For Craig, oil painting is both a way to explore his fascination with nature’s forces and to carry forward a deeply rooted family legacy.
Jordan Craig has also designed visual art for numerous projects, including One Woman Guitar with Grammy-nominated musician Sue Foley for the National Arts Centre.