Artist David Popa has completed a new series of large-scale, temporary murals across winter landscapes in Alberta.

Titled RENEWAL, the project brought David Popa together with Travel Alberta to create the works over nearly two weeks at Abraham Lake and Cline River Canyon. The series features three portrait-based works drawn directly onto ice and snow.

Each mural, measuring between 22.8 m and 41.1 m (75 and 135 ft) in length, depicts partial human faces with closed eyes. The compositions suggest stillness and a sense of arrival, with figures positioned to align with the natural textures and tones of the landscape.

Popa used a charcoal-based medium applied through a spraying device, allowing for tonal variation while maintaining a connection to the surface beneath. The works are designed to be temporary, to fade as environmental conditions change, leaving only photographic and video documentation.

The project required working within shifting weather conditions, including extreme cold, wind, and unstable ice. Popa shared his excitement about the projects on his Instagram, saying, “Three pieces. Three wild locations. One thread running through all of it: that feeling I only get when I make art in nature—renewal, and the courage to begin again.”

Popa centres his practice on creating site-specific works that interact with natural environments and intentionally disappear over time. The RENEWAL series continues this approach, using the Alberta landscape as both medium and subject. Prints of the artwork are available to purchase.

Learn more about David Popa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/david_popa_art/