Robert Houle. The Pines, 2002-2004. Oil on canvas, Panel (centre): 91.4 × 121.9 cm. Panel (side, each of two): 91.4 × 91.4 cm. Gift of Susan Whitney, 2017. © Robert Houle 2017/243

Three green and blue paintings hang in a horizontal row; two monochrome square canvases frame a pine forest on a rectangular canvas in the centre. On the left, a square canvas is painted with horizontal brush strokes in a monochromatic deep green. In the central rectangular canvas, a line of blueish green tree trunks leads diagonally from the right corner in the foreground into the left background. Past a clearing in the left foreground of the canvas, the tree trunks cast shadows on the ground leading deeper into the forest, where a bright yellow sky peeks through the green foliage. To the right of this canvas, a square canvas is painted with horizontal brush strokes in a monochromatic deep blue.

This triptych commemorates the 78 days in the summer of 1990, when Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) land defenders set up a blockade to prevent the town of Oka from building a golf course on the pine forest, a sacred burial ground.