David Thauberger is an established artist known for his paintings of the vernacular architecture and cultural icons of Saskatchewan. Together with his paintings of popular culture and postcard images of tourist meccas far and wide, his images of Saskatchewan are articulate debates involving art, culture, and how we view our world, presenting a hyper-real picture of our context that transcends regionalism while capturing the heart of what it means to be from Saskatchewan.

In Early Morning Rail (2019), Thauberger presents a composition that gives the viewer a sense of the emptiness of the Canadian Prairies. The sharp perspective shows a rural train station that is seemingly unoccupied – neither figures nor trains are in the scene. All that informs us that this is not a fully barren area is the grain elevator off in the distance; it also serves as the anchor for the vanishing point for the perspective, making it even more difficult to get a sense of how far it is.