Location: Canada
Before I started painting abstracts in oils and subsequently acrylics on canvas I had been a major collector of art from 1967 to the late 1990s. This collection was greatly expanded as I purchased many paintings from States in the former Soviet Union in my travels doing research on health consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. These studies were funded by Columbia University in NYC after I had moved from Toronto to NYC. Around this time I started taking classes in drawing and painting at the Art Students League (ASL) and thus my career as an artist began.
My abstract acrylics on canvas in sizes ranging from 30 " by 30 " by 2 up to and including 30 " by 40 by 2 are devoted to the exploration of colour. They are dramatic, extremely colourful, imaginative, decorative and in many cases with the titles I give them thought provoking.
ANCESTRY 36 " by 36 " by 2 " dramatically contrasts the interesting shapes painted in primary colours and their complimentary colours with the background of ultramarine blue.
HORIZONS 36 " by 36 " by 2" both extremely dramatic and colourful explores the relationships between colours. HORIZONS was painted at The Art Students League of New York (ASL) and was inspired by an abstract impressionistic painting by Ronnie Landfield entitled SPIRIT ON HIGH 1995, 86 " by 104 ". I initially attended classes in drawing and painting at the ASL when I first started to paint after moving to NYC from Toronto in 1995 and my work is very much inspired and influenced by Ronnie Landfield's work as he was and still is in attendance at the ASL as my predominant instructor. HORIZONS was painted during a return visit to NYC after I had moved back to Canada in 2007.
BLUE HORIZONS, 40 " by 40 " by 2 " is a companion to HORIZONS (see earlier) and it too is a very dramatic and colourful exploration of colour albeit in a more focused presentation.
INTO THE DEEP(3) is a very dramatic and thought provoking canvas (36 " by 36 " by 2 ") and is the third canvas in a series of four devoted to life forms found in the depths of the world's oceans. The suggestion that the viewer is looking at a skeleton of a sunken ship on the ocean's floor is all about the absence of life.
FLOATING, acrylic on canvas, 36 " by 36 " by 2 " is an extremely dramatic thought provoking canvas exploring the astonishing contrast between the seeming to "float" images against a background of intense blue. One of the primary purposes of this painting is to have the viewer experience of "sinking into blue".
DOORS, acrylic on canvas, 36 " by 36" by 2" is an extremely dramatic abstract study of the contrast between the intense red background and the painted forms and one of the intentions of this canvas is to have the viewer experience the "feeling of sinking into red" in parallel with the canvas FLOATERS (see earlier) which is about the experience of 'sinking into blue".
PANORAMA, acrylic on canvas, 36 by 36 by 2 which is very dramatic, colourful and decorative and thus visually appealing to the viewer also demands that the viewer ask the following questions. Is the painting an abstract panorama of a changing sky at dawn or sunset and/or is it a panoramic rendering of the reflections of changing sky on surf at the beach? Can it not be both?
THE LAST THREESOMES, acrylic on canvas, 40 by 40 by 2 is the third and last painting in the series devoted to sets of three free floating images painted in the same colours but in this painting the background itself is a random mixture of all the colours in which the sets of three images are painted.
INFINITY, acrylic on canvas, 36 by 36 by 2 although not part of the THREESOMES series builds on the colours of that series but here the viewer's attention is focused on the white imagery which if followed visually does not appear to have an end point and thus moves forward to infinity.
FIREFLIES, acrylic on canvas, 36 by 36 by 2, a very dramatic colourful painting suggests a whirly movement of fireflies in dramatic contrast to the night sky. This contrast is intentionally so dramatic that the sky appears to be black when in fact it is ultramarine blue.
Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 x 2
This acrylic on canvas is very timely given the context of global warming and the increasing frequency of wildfires around the world. The focus of this 30 by 40 by 2 canvas is a composition of the kind of used up, dried, out of date material that is so easily combustable. $ 1900.
This very colourful, bold and dramatic acrylic on canvas (30 by 40 by 2) is an abstract landscape featuring sky over land asking the viewer to decide exactly where is the horizon where the sky meets the land. $ 1900.
This acrylic on canvas painting with identical dimensions to that of TINDERBOX (30 by 40 by 2) can be viewed as its companion piece where the focus is on a composition of material that is so out of date and used up that for safety standards to be met it has been condemned. $ 1600.
Very early in my exploration of colour I concentrated on the painting of abstract landscapes using somewhat fantasy like and or non - sensical shapes to exhibit colour. Many of the paintings in this portfolio were painted in oil on canvas, oil having been the painting medium of choice in my early work.
SKY, oil on canvas, 36 by 24 by 2 is an early work when i had started out painting in oils on canvas and is part of a series of paintings where both the sky and the land are painted in very colourful fantastical, non-sensical dream like imagery.
SKY (2) oil on canvas, 36 by 24 by 2 is in a series of paintings where the sky and the land are painted in very colourful fantastical, non-sensical dream like imagery.
Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 x 2
Oil on canvas, 36 x 24 x 2
Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 x 2
“ANCESTRY”
“HORIZONS”
“BLUE HORIZONS”
“INTO THE DEEP (3)”
“FLOATING”
“DOORS”
“PANORAMA”
“THE LAST THREESOMES”
“INFINITY”
“FIREFLIES”
“Into the Deep (3)”
“TINDERBOX”
“BIG SKY ”
“THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED”
“SKY ”
“SKY (2)”
“The River”
“Forest Death”
“The Forest”
