SPIRIT OF SAIL

SPIRIT OF SAIL
12"  x 12" Gallery Wrap Canvas
Sea Dean with homage to R. Dow Reid

This painting is for the LCAG annual Intergenerational Exhibition - Art Through the Ages. The Exhibition opens on Wednesday at Lake Country Art Gallery, Lake Country, B.C. Canada, my local stomping ground. This is the third time I've taken part in the Intergenerational and each year I stretch myself out of my comfort zone and collaborate with someone from another generation. This year is no exception.

This painting follows a small sketch painted at Opus OPC last Sunday. I've toned down the colors, using mainly Prussian Blue, Yellow Green and various shades of off white. I used metallic white impasto to outline the sails where the sun hits the edges.

After OPC I wanted to do a series of paintings based on the well known sculpture by R. Dow Reid. Apparently it is one of the most painted pieces of public art in Kelowna, but I thought one should ask the artist's permission. Dow Reid is 83 years old, but still very much alive, so I attempted contact. So far with no luck, but I will keep trying.

This painting addresses the loosest interpretation of the theme. Part of the criteria states 

"two or more people having different roles in the making of a single piece of artwork - for example: one person models, the other draws/paints model; one person tells a story and/or provides some kind of inspiration, the other illustrates it/turns it into art"

 

I painted the background first, and when I started on the sculpture I felt as if Dow Reids hands were guiding me with the smooth sweeping lines and whispering corrections in my ear. I'm curious if I painted some of his other works if I would experience the same thing.


Addressing the copyright issue for Public Art
This painting falls into a grey area. If it was a photograph intended for sale and those sales would infringe of the original artists income, it would probably be in breech. With original art it somewhat depends on whether the painter has altered or enhanced the original piece, or added enough personal style. I think I have changed the original piece enough by adding the landscape, composition and colour.