Art in Canadian Snow - Blue Orange

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Art in Canadian Snow
And note the Artist's use of blue with orange.

1
Snow Plow
Alex Colville (1920-2013), Canadian
Serigraph on wove paper, 21" x 32" (w x h), 1967
University of Lethbridge Art Collection, Alberta, Canada

David Alexander Colville, (1920-2013) was born in Toronto, Ontario and his family moved to Amherst, Nova Scotia, in 1929. He graduated from Mount Allison University a Bachelor of Fine Arts. In 1942, Colville enlisted in the Canadian Army and was made a War Artist in May 1944. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, elevated to Companion in 1982, the order's highest level. Colville exhibited extensively across Canada and internationally including at the Tate Gallery in London and the Beijing Exhibition Center in Beijing. In 1983 an internationally touring retrospective of his work was organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario. See more of his art HERE.

2
A Clear Winter
Arthur Lismer (1885-1969), English-Canadian
Oil on canvas, 30" x 36" (w x h), 1916
The Thomson Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada

The formation of the Group of Seven was still four years away when Arthur Lismer, one of its founders, painted this bold, lyrical oil of an Ontario hill and sky suffused by winter light. Arthur Lismer, CC RCA LL.D. (1885-1969), an English-Canadian painter, was known primarily as a landscape painter and for his paintings of ships in dazzle camouflage.

The English-born Mr. Lismer (1885-1969) had been in Canada only five years, but already was besotted with Ontario's wilderness and was friends with Tom Thomson and J.E.H. MacDonald, fellow employees of Toronto's Grip Engraving. With its sinuous forms, decorative flourishes and cobalt-blue shadows, this painting, A Clear Winter, clearly owes a debt to Art Nouveau and the contemporary Scandinavian landscape painting of the time. Also, Mr. Lismer's depiction of the tall, snow-laden white pine surmounting a thicket of conifers and random birches and aspens against a big sky has a forthrightness that anticipates the mature Group style.

Also winning: the orange hill, at once a warm complement and cannily positioned counterpoint to the dominant cool blues and whites. A boreal forest, quilt-like snow, sunlight brightening an aquamarine sky - it's hard to imagine a landscape more clearly, crisply Canadian than A Clear Winter.

3
Central Park Angel
Heather Horton (1974- ), Canadian
Oil on canvas, 36" x 36" (w x h),
Private collection

Heather Horton (1974- ), born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, attended McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada where she received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. She then went on to graduate from the well-respected Interpretive Illustration program at Sheridan College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is known for her colorful, realist paintings, which focus on internal states, contemplative narratives, and often draw from personal connections to her own life. Several of her paintings are in the Lionsgate film A Simple Favor, starring Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick (who graduated from Deering High School in Portland, Maine).

4
In Algonquin Park
Tom Thomson (1877-1917), Canadian
Oil on canvas, 32" x 25" (w x h), winter 1914-15
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada

Thomas John Thomson (August 5, 1877 - July 8, 1917) was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His works consist almost entirely of landscapes, depicting trees, skies, lakes, and rivers. He used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the beauty and color of the Ontario landscape. Thomson is considered by many Canadians as the archetypal painter, and his later work has heavily influenced Canadian art. Although he died before the formal establishment of the Group of Seven, Thomson is often considered an unofficial member. His art is typically exhibited with the rest of the Group's.

5
Jeunes Filles, Rue Beaudry / Young Girls, Rue Beaudry
John Little (1928-2024), Canadian
Oil on canvas, 32" x 24" (w x h), 1970
Alan Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
For sale, $20,000 Canadian Dollars

This painting is a story about a neighborhood, the people, the neighbors and of course the built heritage. Since John Little painted this composition in 1970 of Rue Beaudry at avenue Brien, much has changed. In fact, avenue Brien, formerly a cul-de-sac with only a few doors, is gone, now parking for a low rise apartment building constructed on that open lot, which Little implies on the center-right-hand side of his painting.

While Little's painting places are limited primarily to Montreal and Quebec City, his story is a North American one, an observation that urban renewal and suburbanization were adversely changing and even obliterating the heritage of neighborhoods, the people and the built heritage. It was fully a generation after Little began to commemorate in paint these areas that were being adversely affected by social policies dictated by City Hall in Little's City of Montreal, municipal officials changed course, now looking to conserve some neighborhoods and repopulate the downtown core which they had previously dedicated to offices.

John Little (1928-2024) was a renowned Canadian artist, best known for his vibrant, Fauvist-style oil paintings of his hometown, Montreal. His art journey began at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and continued at the Art Students League of New York, where he met Ray Bailley. Together, they illustrated the Bruce Gentry comic strip. In 1949, Little joined his family's architectural firm as a draftsman, but his passion for painting never faltered. Following his marriage in 1953, he made painting his primary profession. His talent was recognized by the Royal Canadian Academy, which he joined in 1961 and earned full membership by 1973. His art is held in collections at the National Gallery of Canada, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery at Concordia University, and the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art.

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