12 x 16", acrylic on mounted gessoed birch panel
painting #258, 2017
In 2016, Mount Allison University was the recipient of a generous donation from the family of the late Alex Colville, gifting the entire content of his art studio as he left it at the time of his passing. A variety of easels, furniture, artefacts and art supplies now have a new home in the Colville House located at 76 York Street in Sackville, NB. It was in this house that Alex Colville with his wife Rhoda raised their four children and lived from 1949 to 1973. Colville was a professor with the Fine Arts Faculty at Mount Allison University from 1946 to 1963. They continued living in the house for another decade after he left his teaching position prior to moving to Wolfville, NS. The original studio in the Colville House was located on in the attic, a tight space with a 6 ft head clearance. It is here that he painted many of his best known work, including To Prince Edward Island (1965) that graces the cover of the book in my composition. This book was published in 2014 by Goose Lane Edition in Fredericton, NB in conjunction with a major lifetime retrospective exhibition of his work organized and held at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), then later at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Photos taken at the Colville House, July 26, 2017
The Tasco binoculars belonged to my late father Raymond and are the exact same model as in To Prince Edward Island. I've been wanting to paint these binoculars for at least a decade. I grew up in Cap-Lumière, NB along the Northumberland Strait. On a clear day, we could see PEI even without binoculars. After I acquired the book all I needed was the proper setting. When my wife and I visited the Colville House last summer, the whole narrative came to me. I would return a few weeks later with book and binoculars in hand to do a quick photo session. This painting is an homage to two men who greatly influenced my life and my art.
Alex Colville in his Wolfville studio, 1984.
Still image from "Order and Splendor"
National Film Board of Canada
Click HERE to view the documentary
My wife and I visited Toronto two months ago to visit the city and attend Art Toronto. While exiting the Princess of Wales Theatre after attending the play ''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" we came across Alex Colville's Star on the Canadian Walk of Fame located on King Street.
This painting is available from the Fog Forest Gallery in Sackville, NB, located 650m from the Colville House.
To acquire this painting please contact:
Fog Forest Gallery
14 Bridge Street, Sackville,
New Brunswick, Canada, E4L 3N5
Phone (506) 536-9000
e-mail: janet@fogforstgallery.ca
-SOLD
