Acrylic on gessoed hardboard, #16316 x 20'' - 2009
Once again, a play with words inspired the painting itself. A bit daunting to paint in this size for me, as my artwork is usually smaller. The Group of Seven was an alliance of Canadian landscape painters that formed in the 1920's and were heavily influenced by the French Impressionists. They painted landscapes in the Georgian Bay, Algonguin Park, Muskoka and Algoma regions of Ontario. Later, they ventures to British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Nova Scotia and the Arctic. Eventually, other artists joined the group or were closely associated. The McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinberg Ontario, contains 6000 pieces of art from The Group of Seven.
The book, The Group of Seven was published in conjunction with the exhibition, The Group of Seven: Art for a Nation, organized and circulated by the National Gallery of Canada. It was written by Charles C. Hill, then curator of Canadian Art at the National Gallery.
The popularity of The Group of Seven has not diminished. Their art is very sought after by collectors. The art cover on the Book is Island-MacCallum Lake by Lawren Harris. Many of his paintings have fetched upward of one million dollars at auction. In 2007, Pine Tree and Red House, winter, City Park II went for 2,875,000$ C, including premiums. Harris was a founding member and past president of the Federation of Canadian Artists, from which I am an elected member since 2004.
For this painting, the book itself was the fun part, the bottom of the bowl was an exercise of concentration and trying to see things as they are. The PLU sticker was an add on, and that lime in particular was taken from another photograph as my source.
Part of my solo show- Near & Far - October 16-30, 2009.
-SOLD
