To view image click on "Access Content Now" above Robert Vincent’s watercolour painting of “Neesetto Lake” depicts the dense, northern boreal forest with white birch trees surrounding quiet water. He portrays the cool tones of an overcast day with a muted colour palette. The sketch-like quality of his brushstroke suggests that he painted this scene fairly quickly, perhaps out in the landscape, “en plein air”. It is difficult to pinpoint the location depicted in this painting. It may be that “Neesetto” is an alternate spelling for “Nesosap” which means 'twelve' in Cree. This would place the site in Northern Manitoba, close to Bakers Narrows, where there are fourteen lakes on the Mistik Creek loop named numerically in Cree from one to fourteen. Robert Vincent (1908 – 1984) immigrated from Newcastle-on-Tyne in England to Russell, Manitoba in 1927. He served in the British Army during World War II, and as a member of the Royal Engineers Expeditionary Force, he taught drawing to army engineers. Returning to Canada in 1947, Vincent settled in Saskatoon and worked as a construction worker and field engineer with the Trans-Canada Highway development. Though primarily self-taught as an artist, Vincent was an active member of the Saskatoon arts community, and his work was exhibited regularly in Western Canada. He created art with a diverse range of subject matter, from precisely drafted industrial landscapes to more naïve wilderness studies, animal and figurative work, and wood carving. His artwork is held in provincial collections, including MacKenzie Art Gallery, Saskatchewan Arts Board, University of Saskatchewan, ReMai Modern (formerly Mendel Art Gallery), and Dunlop Art Gallery. Vincent’s work was exhibited at Dunlop Art Gallery in 1974, with the work of landscape artist, Greg Hardy
