Angles and planes of the city - WordPress.com · 2015. 4. 15. · Coombs paints with acrylic on...
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Barry Coombs, Elgin, acrylic on canvas. Aleda O’Connor, Ice House, oil pastel on wood panel. Barry Coombs, One Way, acrylic on canvas. Angles and planes of the city Regina Haggo Hamilton Spectator | Oct 25, 2014 Sleep in on Sunday morning? That's not for Aleda O'Connor and Barry Coombs. The two local artists went out early, camera in hand, in search of inspiration for their latest exhibition. "Starting at first light, we roamed the downtown, east end and industrial neighbourhoods," Coombs tells me. "We often wound up at Two Cougars and a Café on Burlington Street for breakfast and a chance to review our photos." The photos led to sketches and the sketches to the paintings in #Hamilton 2Views, a striking exhibition at Earls Court Gallery. "As we explored the city together, there was, and is, constant dialogue about colour and shapes," O'Connor says. "Often, as we drive through the city on one errand or another, we notice and remark about some interesting combination of shapes, silhouette or colour. If it is possible to pull over, one of us takes a photo." Urban views have been part of Coombs's repertoire for a while. "The visual variety of urban environments has inspired me since I explored the old industrial neighbourhoods of Toronto as a young art student," he says. O'Connor, however, had just recently made her mark with an exhibition of gorgeous landscape paintings complete with sheep. But she easily switched to urban themes. "When I began to select images for this show, I was looking for buildings that combined strong silhouette and colour. But it is impossible to look at or paint these places without wondering about the people who live or work in them," she explains. "I am drawn to colour, shape and story." O'Connor uses oil pastels and layers her colours to achieve her rich and vibrant palette. "Ray and Peter" focuses on houses with orange brick walls and blue roofs. A grey-roofed house with white walls rises in the distance. Combined with the elevated point of view, different shades of blue and orange draw our attention to geometric shapes such as triangles, rectangles, parallelograms and other polygons. In "Ice House," O'Connor invites us to contemplate the distinctively roofed old structure that once produced ice for Hamilton's iceboxes. Coombs, like O'Connor, likes to emphasize a building's geometry. O'Connor's buildings look naturalistic and solid. Coombs, however, opts for a more simplified, animated style. He flattens, overlaps and tilts the architecture. "The planes and angles of the city are a natural fit with my passion for Cubism and geometric abstraction," he says. In "Elgin," straight lines, rectangles and triangles dominate the composition. Coombs paints the buildings in bright reds, greens and blues, the kind of colours that intensify one another. A bold composition characterizes "One Way." A bending blue street occupies the left side, adorned only with five yellow lines and a jagged black shadow. He gives us a bird's-eye view of the road, but we see the crazy cluster of Angles and planes of the city http://www.thespec.com/whatson-story/4942787-angles-and-pla... 1 of 2 2015-04-10, 11:09 AM
Transcript of Angles and planes of the city - WordPress.com · 2015. 4. 15. · Coombs paints with acrylic on...
Barry Coombs, Elgin, acrylic on canvas.
Aleda O’Connor, Ice House, oil pastel on wood panel.
Barry Coombs, One Way, acrylic on canvas.
Angles and planes of the cityRegina Haggo
Hamilton Spectator | Oct 25, 2014
Sleep in on Sunday morning? That's not for Aleda O'Connor and BarryCoombs. The two local artists went out early, camera in hand, in search ofinspiration for their latest exhibition.
"Starting at first light, we roamed the downtown, east end and industrialneighbourhoods," Coombs tells me.
"We often wound up at Two Cougars and a Café on Burlington Street forbreakfast and a chance to review our photos."
The photos led to sketches and the sketches to the paintings in #Hamilton2Views, a striking exhibition at Earls Court Gallery.
"As we explored the city together, there was, and is, constant dialogue aboutcolour and shapes," O'Connor says.
"Often, as we drive through the city on one errand or another, we notice andremark about some interesting combination of shapes, silhouette or colour. If itis possible to pull over, one of us takes a photo."
Urban views have been part of Coombs's repertoire for a while.
"The visual variety of urban environments has inspired me since I explored theold industrial neighbourhoods of Toronto as a young art student," he says.
O'Connor, however, had just recently made her mark with an exhibition ofgorgeous landscape paintings complete with sheep. But she easily switched tourban themes.
"When I began to select images for this show, I was looking for buildings thatcombined strong silhouette and colour. But it is impossible to look at or paintthese places without wondering about the people who live or work in them,"she explains. "I am drawn to colour, shape and story."
O'Connor uses oil pastels and layers her colours to achieve her rich andvibrant palette. "Ray and Peter" focuses on houses with orange brick walls andblue roofs. A grey-roofed house with white walls rises in the distance.
Combined with the elevated point of view, different shades of blue and orangedraw our attention to geometric shapes such as triangles, rectangles,parallelograms and other polygons.
In "Ice House," O'Connor invites us to contemplate the distinctively roofed oldstructure that once produced ice for Hamilton's iceboxes.
Coombs, like O'Connor, likes to emphasize a building's geometry. O'Connor'sbuildings look naturalistic and solid. Coombs, however, opts for a moresimplified, animated style. He flattens, overlaps and tilts the architecture.
"The planes and angles of the city are a natural fit with my passion for Cubismand geometric abstraction," he says.
In "Elgin," straight lines, rectangles and triangles dominate the composition.Coombs paints the buildings in bright reds, greens and blues, the kind ofcolours that intensify one another.
A bold composition characterizes "One Way." A bending blue street occupiesthe left side, adorned only with five yellow lines and a jagged black shadow.
He gives us a bird's-eye view of the road, but we see the crazy cluster of
Angles and planes of the city http://www.thespec.com/whatson-story/4942787-angles-and-pla...
1 of 2 2015-04-10, 11:09 AM
Aleda O'Connor, Ray and Peter, oil pastel on wood panel.brightly hued houses at the top right from a different perspective.
Coombs paints with acrylic on canvas, a new venture for this exhibition.
"I've exhibited mostly watercolours for several decades and my work in gouache and acrylic has almost always been onpaper. I've often experimented with acrylic and oil on canvas in the studio but rarely exhibited them."
Regina Haggo, art historian, public speaker, curator and former professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand,teaches at the Dundas Valley School of Art. [email protected]
Barry Coombs and Aleda O'Connor
What: #Hamilton2Views
Where: Earls Court Gallery, 215 Ottawa St. N.
When: Until Nov.15
Phone: 905-527-6685
Angles and planes of the city http://www.thespec.com/whatson-story/4942787-angles-and-pla...
2 of 2 2015-04-10, 11:09 AM
![OIL PAINTINGS, WATERCOLOURS, DRAWINGS, PRINTS AND · PDF fileOIL PAINTINGS, WATERCOLOURS, DRAWINGS, PRINTS AND ... together with two other watercolours by the same hand. [3] *£200](https://static.fdocuments.in/doc/165x107/5abb186f7f8b9a441d8c67c7/oil-paintings-watercolours-drawings-prints-and-paintings-watercolours-drawings.jpg)
