Blue sky thinking

Pthaloblue 

Having spent many recent hours wandering the local streets
immediately surrounding this house-with-a-wall,
one can easily appreciate the old houses that characterize
this local neighbourhood, how during one recent Sunday
afternoon stroll not far from here, happening upon a young
musician casually playing saxophone on a large porch, and
noting how it combined perfectly with the vibrant colours
of that particular automn afternoon to evoke a resonant reminder
of Lawren Harris' painting entitled Early Houses (from 1913).


payne'sgrayumberochre 

Having admired it for many years, for how Harris layers
its edible colours with thick impasto strokes, one thinks
of how this particular piece typifies his early work
of impressionistic Toronto house paintings.


yellowochrewhite 

Born in 1885 in Brantford, Ontario,
Lawren Harris became the driving force that brought together
and joined the varied talents and temperments
of a group of seven canadian painters.


payne'sgreycrimsonred 

In a Group of Seven exhibition catalogue from 1920, he wrote,

"The group of seven artists...have for several years
held a like vision concerning art in Canada. They are all imbued
with the idea that an art must grow and flower in the land before
the country will be a real home for its people."

moreyellowochrewhite 

Although Harris made many trips to Europe during his lifetime,
he always returned to Canada complaining that over there,
"everything was too close", always preferring the far horizons
of his native home, with its sense of open space,
somehow sensed even in its urban settings.


windowsneratheroof 

Layered colours,
thick impasto strokes
and the rich Canadian tradition
of painting a sense of place.