Before the Dance (Tahiti)

Oil on canvas (?early 1980s)

Size: w 30″ x h 26″

This painting looks better now since the photograph was taken. It’s been cleaned, retouched, and varnished to bring out the deep shadows and rich colours. It is currently on display at The Piggery Gallery in Newburgh (https://www.thepiggerygallery.com/) along with many of my other pieces, large and small, recent and somewhat less so (for example, The Great Black Cow of Lascaux (https://npaulartworks.com/2016/07/31/the-great-black-cow-of-lascaux/).

The annual show of the Organization of Kingston Women Artists, UnRestricted, is currently up at The Window Gallery in Kingston (http://www.windowartgallerykingston.com/). The show can be experienced virtually (https://youtu.be/gm7JgXgVkvI) as well as in person, limited access of course. My piece in the show is On the Beach (Dark Summer), previously posted just over a year ago (https://npaulartworks.com/2019/08/) and my statement addressing the theme “unrestricted” is as follows:

I begin a painting with an idea and an image, sailing into the unknown, unrestricted in subject or intention.  I know where I start and will come to know where I end; between are clusters of small course corrections, at times dramatic changes of direction. The voyage is driven by instinct, the trajectory charted in retrospect; understanding comes afterward. Begun as a figure study, On the Beach ends as the experience of loss and death on a golden day under a sapphire sky.  The figure is burnt, branded and radioactively radiant, yet she looks up with hope, listening and waiting.

Main website: http://www.npaulvisualart.com

Summer (Sleeping Medusa)

Oil (1980), acrylic and conte (2020) on canvas

Size: h 29″ x w 43 ” x d 1″

My show at the Art Noise Gallery in Kingston has been extended until 12 September 2020! This is great news as both the store and gallery are now open for browsing, occupancy of course limited due to social distancing requirements but an appointment is no longer required. The show also continues virtually (https://www.artnoise.ca/gallery.html) and pieces are rotated in the window for street viewing.

Summer (Sleeping Medusa) is from the Time half of my show. I started this painting in 1980, when I was working in oil. In 2018 I changed the background and in June 2020 I finally finished it in acrylic. Note that she is less elusive than the other figures in Time, revealing her full face (or is it after all a mask, slipping to one side slightly?).

I invite you to visit my new website for an overview of my art as I continue to add images and information: https://www.npaulvisualart.com/