Sold for: $169,250

PROVENANCE
Loch Gallery, Winnipeg
Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Ivan Eyre, Ivan on Eyre: The Paintings, Pavilion Gallery, 2004, page 474, reproduced page 475

Although Ivan Eyre’s sweeping landscapes were inspired by the plains and plateaus of the Canadian Prairies, they are in fact entirely imagined geographies. Eyre views the resulting dreamscapes, often built up intuitively, as fundamentally non-objective paintings, exploring the subjective character of the painted space as well as that of the painter. This intention is evident in the deeply swept terrain of Cloud Rows. The foreground hills seem to resonate in vibrant green and deep blues, while spindled branches and bustling foliage, precisely rendered in fine dashes of paint, bring texture to the rolling, receding treelines. Further foothills fade into softer blues, with fields and the scrape of a lake emerging from the valley folds.

Here, Eyre dramatically lowers the horizon line, allowing the pale sky to take on an equally important role. The clouds continue and dematerialize the stratifications of the terrain, as the rolling hills are echoed in the softened strands and cotton-like puffs across the grey-blue field. Indeed, the division between the far landscape and the swept skyscape is imprecise, even illusionistic, as the distant hills seem to be dissolving into mist and fog. As Eyre notes, “There’s no such thing as an incorrect cloud formation or combination of cloud-types—the possibilities are endless.”

All prices are in Canadian Dollars