Sold for: $46,800

PROVENANCE
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
An Important Private Estate, Montreal

LITERATURE
David Burnett, Colville, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983, the 1982 serigraph Woman, Dog and Canoe reproduced page 201
David Burnett, Alex Colville: Prints, 1985, the 1982 serigraph Woman, Dog and Canoe reproduced front cover

This luminous work is the study for the 1982 serigraph Woman, Dog and Canoe. Colville produces preparatory works for both his prints and paintings and, in some cases, the decision to execute a print or a painting from the evolving image happens late in this process. Colville’s approach to his serigraphs is as technically precise and carefully thought out as for his paintings. This study is at a high point of evolution in that it contains all the primary pictorial elements of the serigraph. His use of colour in this work is more brilliant than the serigraph, making this work less formal, exuding more of the glowing light and the heightened hues of summer. The brilliant blue of the water makes the canoe appear to float, and the pointillist application of paint on its surface adds to the impression of lightness. The uniquely Canadian image of the canoe and paddler has recurred in Colville’s work, such as in the 1970 serigraph Sunrise, the 1972 painting Woman Carrying Canoe and the 1979 painting Swimming Dog and Canoe.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars