Although I’ve been involved in my practice as a painter for some thirty- odd years, I’ve never been completely successful in determining just what got me started and further, just what it is that I’m up to.
At some level my work is a response to the mystery of being here (wherever ‘here’ is) and in the beginning, I worked in what would be called a ‘high realist’ style. My interest was primarily to document and to perhaps reveal the essential limitedness of our knowledge by constructing ‘real’’ and banal scenes or contexts in a very cool and detached manner. Although quite natural and possible, the resulting images were meant to be difficult to ‘read’ and this difficulty would point up the ambiguous nature of reality. I worked much as a magician would work at practicing a magic trick or illusion. I was careful to hide the means used to create the final work…to achieve a smoothness of surface and an objectivity which was not to be ‘contaminated’ by any ‘painterly’ trace of the medium or the artist’s subjective feelings.
At some point, I switched from acrylics to oil and began to paint “en plaine aire” landscapes where I became more involved with the plastic possibilities of the medium itself. The more I worked with this more expressionistic approach, the more I became enamored of the medium and soon I was having difficulty distinguishing just where paint ended and image began. The next step became inevitable; I suppose…working only with the expressive qualities of paint itself and leaving ‘recognizable image’ behind. I have yielded much conscious or direct control in my present practice and as a result am more open to what is disclosed or revealed to me through the process of working.
So now, in a time where we all seem to be involved in relentless and near-hysterical “doing” I think of my artistic practice in terms of Heidegger’s “being-in-the-world” and the resulting works as, to quote Mark Kingwell, “slabs of existence”. These slabs are not pieces of equipment subordinate to the concept of “usefulness” but are instead openings or spaces in which we are called to remember what it means to be.
- 1945 Born in Revelstoke, British Columbia
- 1968 Completed studies at Ontario College of Art, Toronto Ontario
- 1968-70 Worked as free-lance illustrator in Toronto
Exhibitions
- 2001
- Salmon Arm Art Gallery, Salmon Arm B.C., duo exhibition "Co-Incidence"
- 2000 John ramsay Gallery, Vancouver B.C., solo exhibition " Recent Work Porch Furniture Series"
- 1999
- John Ramsay Gallery, Vancouver B.C., solo exhibition "Recent Work"
- Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton Alberta, group show " The Future Ain't What It Used to Be: The Victoria School Exhibition Project"
- Vernon Art Gallery, Vernon, B. C. solo exhibition. " Domestic Exotica"
- 1998
- Salmon Arm Art Gallery, Salmon Arm, B. C. solo exhibition
- Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, B.C. group show, "Home Base"
- Headbones Gallery, Vernon, B.C. solo exhibition, "New Paintings"
- Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, B.C. group show, "Hockey Night in Canada"
- 1997
- Oasis Gallery, Kamloops, B.C. solo exhibition, "Isolated Incidence"
- 1996
- Langham Cultural Centre, Kaslo, B.C., solo serigraphic exhibition
- Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, B.C., group show, "The Grass Menagerie"
- Kamloops Public Art Gallery, Kamloops, B.C., solo exhibition "Fish Princess"
- 1995
- Headbones Gallery, Vernon, B.C. solo exhibition, "Following Directions"
- 1994
- Centre d'Exposition du Vieux Palais, St. Jerome,Quebec, solo exhibition "Following Directions"
- 1993
- New Works Gallery, University of Illinois at Chicago, group show "Visible Language"
- Amelia Douglas Gallery, Douglas College, New Westminster, B.C. solo exhibition "Following Directions"
- Smash Gallery, Vancouver, B.C., solo exhibition "Following Directions"
- 1992
- Kamloops Public Art Gallery, Kamloops, B.C. solo exhibition "Following Directions"
- 1991
- Oasis Gallery, Kamloops B.C., group show "Little Picture Show"
- 1988
- Kamloops Public Art Gallery, Kamloops B.C. group anniversary show
- 1987
- Grace Gallery, Vancouver, B.C. solo exhibition
- 1986
- Bonnie Kagan Gallery,Toronto, Ontario, solo exhibition
- 1984
- Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, B.C. solo exhibition
- Kamloops Public Art Gallery, Kamloops, B.C. group show "A Fish Story"
- 1983
- Graffiti Gallery, Vancouver, B.C. solo exhibition
- 1980
- Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, B.C., group show "Stolen Moments"
- 2nd Biannual Canadian Print and Drawing Council, group show
- Hett Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, solo exhibition
- 1979
- Devooght Galleries, Vancouver, B.C. solo exhibition
- Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, B.C. group show "Kids and Cows"
Commissions-Awards
- 1970 Awards of merit from Toronto/Montreal Art Directors Club
- 1973 Commissioned by Canada Post to design postage stamps commemorating 100th anniversary of birth of Nellie McClung
- 1974 Commissioned by Canada Post to design series of postage stamps commemorating 100th anniversary of postal service in Canada
- 1990 Received Explorations Grant from Canada Council
Collections
- Weyerhauser Canada Ltd.
- B. C. Telephone
- B.C. Lottery Corporation
- Bronfman Collection, Montreal, Quebec
- Connor Clarke and Company, Toronto Ontario
- Ernst and Young, Toronto Ontario
- Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby B. C.
- Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops B. C.
- Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton Alberta
- Westin Hotels, Whistler B. C.
- Prestige Inns, Salmon Arm B. C
Publications-Bibliography
- 2000
- Asian Art News, September/October
- Artichoke Magazine , Spring 2000
- 1996
- Vancouver Sun, review of books, December 14
- 1994
- New Art Examiner, January
- 1993
- The Royal City Record, September 22
- Vancouver Sun, September25
- Vancouver Sun, February 6
- 1990
- CFJC Television, Kamloops B.C.-"Print or not to Print"
- 1987
- Western Living
- Art Post Magazine, February/March
- CFJC Television, Kamloops B.C. - "PROBE" - Documentary on artist's work
- 1984
- Western Living Magazine, February
- 1982
- Vancouver Sun, December 1
- Vancouver Sun, September 24
- 1980
- Vancouver Magazine, April
- Images, Contemporary Canadian Realism
- 1979
- Vanguard Magazine, August
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