… as told by Deborah Worsfold

Black Stripe
24 X 24 inches, on canvas, white frame

Without the stripe the work falls to pieces. I painted the whole thing just so I could lay that black stripe into the piece. It helps to move you around and yet it doesn’t dictate overly. It suggests that it functions as part of the tablecloth pattern and yet if you follow it you will see it breaks away. It sits instead on top of the vibrant palette and animates the space through forcing your eye to move around it. This was painted from life in my studio which is not always the case. I like to live with some still life until I see something in it. In this case there isn’t much to the flowers. They are more a herd of vases then they are pretty but then this allows me to work with form. Part of the decision to paint a still is whether I want to see through the vase and abstract or paint form. I have a vase collection so sometimes I have to paint it twice because I cannot decide.

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Lifeboat
24 X 24 inches, on canvas, white frame

What a great appetizer dish.  This is another studio work, rather nostalgic using a futon as a dramatic backdrop. It was interesting to paint the flowers in shadow and yet still communicate colour as well as shadow. Monet showed us that shadows can be stunning colours. I once painted a body of work concentrating on shadows. They lie all the time. And they are rather boring if you leave them gray. They don’t work unless the colour relationship does to all that is around. I was thinking that I wouldn’t tell you to see if you noticed the reflection in my grandmother’s old ruby vase. Its handsome colour is wonderful to paint, a shift from white vases. My easel and I are reflected in the glass and certainly my easel is a lifeboat.

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Presence
24 X 24 inches, on canvas, maple frame

Risking the sentimental is treacherous for a painter. And yet what in life worthwhile isn’t attached to someone? I have never cared for pastels. I wore orange when I was child, not pink. So now it is delightful to tame the colour. This work presented the challenge of painting a silvery paper behind. I enjoyed leaving the degree of finish to you to sort out. Where does the bouquet end and the wall start. I don’t care as the overall motif is so compelling. What’s fabulous about a painting is that it remains an object even though you can make it whisper or bark and there are no rules that cannot be broken as long as in the end you make it work. The shell took seconds to brush in. It was most important to leave it alone. Know when to stop and when to go for it.

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My Beeglass
24 X 24 inches, on canvas, maple frame

Nothing more than a little leftover lipstick and it made me want to paint it. There is a symbol for Deborah…a bee. My beeglass sat there with water in it while I painted these tulips in my small kitchen. I wish I had those tiles but it is not possible. I made the pattern up. I enjoy creating pattern and making it convincing. It can be an unforgiving practise as if it is too repetitive it is monotonous. So one must tighten it enough to convince and yet not so much that your eye cannot jump around in it.

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Shelf Life
36 X 36 inches, on panel, maple frame
There are two other versions of this work in scale as well. This one is the wild child. There is an old saying if you want something to sell put a bird in it. Isn’t that silly! But I happened to have a piece of pottery as a bird from a friend and it flew into the painting. But then I couldn’t leave it in so I painted over it. Pentimenti enables the viewer to choose from two plains within the same painting. What is underneath and what is overtop? A change of mind is revealed in many places with the turn of my favorite brush…a filbert. It can do almost anything deftly. Or rather I can if I have the size right. So I have a bunch of them. This originates from my dining room. I thought the tulips might make spring come sooner.

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Gray & Mauve
12 x 17 inches, on paper, black frame

Also known as Well Travelled, it is one of my wishes to be as such. You can travel in paint. You can create endless different places to be. This in particular screams of a multi cultured soul shown through the strange furniture. These interiors show my love of mixing colour as these grays are all mixed from primaries. The glow you see comes from the colour relationships. Grays can be tedious if you are not okay with working with tiny increments of paint. You pick up too much with your brush and it becomes another colour. Gray demonstrates the cast of colours well. This is something I have always been able to see and so then I can warn a friend what cast a colour has. This dynamic is endlessly fascinating to me. Here the gray and mauve relationship anchors the space.

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Gray & Orange
15 x 14 inches, on paper, black frame

Orange is pivotal here. You can see it if you put your hand over the orange, the space loses power. The white space I leave on the surface where the white shows through creates a light source independent of the subject itself. It reads as luminescent. Leaving space between strokes comes naturally. It’s the way I paint. I do not like to fill in all the space. I want there to be air in there so the colours can breathe and let you see into it. These interiors present the idea of becoming structured with that white space and I feel they add an element of mystery. It engages the viewer’s imagination by inviting you to complete the space. The white space is paper left.  I see painting as an object that acts in space. To see it you must stand in front and the space between required to view the work becomes part of the object as it acts.

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Satellite
30 X 22.5 inches, on paper, black frame

I used to write poetry. I like to think that my work is a might poetic. Titling paintings is part of inventory control and to reinforce the moment. I feel that untitled work is kind of leaving the painting hanging. I look for a puzzle to solve before I decide to paint something. I need to respond to my seeing and get a feel for why it provokes me. I want a bit of my life in it even if it is small. That can be just what I am interested in doing in paint or something deeper. This series of work is ongoing. Initially I decided I would paint 50 for my 50^th birthday. There are over 60 birthday paintings now. One bunch of glad’s was named helicopter so satellite came next. And I got my very first satellite dish only last year. You have to buy a house to go with them apparently.

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Island Life
36 X 36 inches, on canvas, maple frame

I love palm trees. I would have them everywhere in my home if they would live. It will have to do in paint instead.  I like black as a colour. It can work as a graphic too but it is flat then and tends to sit on a different plain then the rest of the colour. So to ensure that it operates as a colour I mix my own. In this way it maintains a relationship with the other colours. In a way it is even more black than black. The light that radiates in the space is rather mysterious and exotic as no light source is shown and yet it is clearly suggests through severely cropping it out. This then increases the size of the space you perceive. It is only 36 by 36 but it feels larger. Painting food is a weird process. It is never the colour you think and so it is an interesting puzzle. Brownies or fudge…you decide. Obscuring is a wonderful way to suggest depth where there is none.

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Pause
36 X 36 inches, on panel, maple frame

Still life painters are commonly slammed for painting pretty things. What a bad rap. It’s all different when Van Gogh or Manet do it. I often seek less obvious bouquets and this one screamed at me, just a pile of grass and some lupins but what an array. Greens can be tricky as there is so much suggested however, not all greens refer to nature so the choices narrow greatly. Achieving definition through a narrow value range is tricky. This work I narrowed both in colour and tone and results in a fresh calm. The pause is pregnant with light and possibility. Taking a moment to turn a page is always an option isn’t it? I do think that way.

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Glamourpuss
38 X 76 inches, on panel, maple frame

Further to my interest in creating space through building relationships in colour I tried a slightly coloured gesso to see how that would affect how the image acts. I see that it does force out a higher contrast palette. I found myself ramping up the intensity of colour in this piece. I particularly enjoy the grand atmosphere this work projects. Glamourpuss is an old nickname I have enjoyed. But oh how difficult to paint such a thing without sequin or sensational tricks. Overall the feel is one of enjoying the pause and the ready before an eventful meeting or of anticipating great fun. The orchids animate the space nicely both in my own home and here in this space that is known to me only in paint.

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Nest
38 X 76 inches, on panel, maple frame

Although painted eight years after Glamourpuss, I am thrilled to see that I can still command a convincing space. In décor choosing blues can be a nightmare. Here my interest certainly is not in décor but the colour of light that melds with the blue hue in the room. What is colour, wall or space is arguable and yet it is convincing even though it is not certain. The life in a shadow hovers and the sparkle of outside contrasts. My sense of humour looms in the crazy white painting hanging there. But it feels good to gaze upon it. Painting art in art has its challenge which I often have fun with. This one sports a painting relative to another body of work I have in landscape.

Robert Sears has shared the stories behind some of his paintings from his solo show “Shadowplay”.

Deep Forest
Where we live we are surrounded by forest; we often walk in the forest on moonlit nights- the trail like a path of moonbeams.  I pictured Allison walking in her sleep in her nightgown or in a dream; her spirit will always be in the places we walk

Shooting Range
This is a theme from a Japanese woodblock.  I am an archer and these two women are also archers- their tattoos and appearance seems like a new order of woman, and yet timeless

Girls In the Rain
This is another theme from a Japanese woodblock- simple and timeless; umbrellas are a favorite motif of mine- colourful protective shields

My Chambermaid
I once lived in a rooming house with a winding staircase and the wallpaper looked like stars.  I remember the young French girls who cleaned the rooms ascending the stairs – like climbing upward toward the light

October Ferry To Gabriola
A tribute to the novel by Malcolm Lowry-  Allison on the ferry with Gabriola Island in the background-  also an homage to Alex Colville who was an influence on my work

Chinatown
I have explored Chinatown in a few different cities -New York, Vancouver, Victoria- and have always felt a dark mystery of the place- a working girl ascending a darkened stairway

Magic Coat
When Lillian wears her strange colourful coat she feels like a child and indulges in flights of fancy

Dark Birds
These three are like the witches of Macbeth; they suddenly just appeared with the birds. I wondered what they were talking about as they walked in the park early one morning; they seemed to be casting a spell.

Woman and Swan
Leda and the Swan- this could be anywhere and any time; her fate approaches closer and closer;  two beauties, woman and nature

Evening Boats
These boats seem mysterious and melancholy- ready to sail on a dark mysterious journey

Evening Bus
A mysterious fantasy bus stop in the middle of nowhere; a nondescript bus with no one in sight- waiting for whom and going where?

Child and Sea
In this painting I am trying to express how fragile we are- the vastness of the sea behind the child- if she were afloat she would be almost lost from sight

Winter Dream
Allison fell asleep on the couch during a snowstorm and dreamed that she was covered with a blanket of snow like the earth. Wallpaper is a favorite motif of mine and this wallpaper became snowflakes

A New Wave
A crew waits as a new kind of ship is ready to embark on a new kind of journey and a new age

 

 

To Artists and Collectors,

I chair the art procurement committee charged with art acquisitions for the incredible new  Ronald McDonald House BC of which I have attached a complete description.

RMHBC New House Artist Information

We are looking for donations of art that provide inspiration and hope for the families of young patients who need specialized treatment offered at BC Children’s hospital. These families will be coming from throughout BC and the Yukon.

The donations can be from artists or collectors.

We are looking for artwork which encompasses the theme of each pavilion.

The four pavilions are:

1. Mountain House
2. River House
3. Forest House
4. Beach house

As a committee we feel that artwork that is non-figurative is preferred.

If you are interested in making a submission, please contact me directly by phone or email.
Final selections will be made by the committee.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
phone: (604) 732-5353, email: matt [at] petleyjones.com

Thank you for your help,

Matt Petley-Jones

Ronald McDonald House® BC
is a vital resource to the residents of BC and the Yukon and provides a home-away from-home for families whose seriously ill children are receiving medical treatment at BC Children’s Hospital.

Why Donate Artwork?
The positive and therapeutic impact of art on those in distress is well documented. While families are here to focus on treatment and care for their child, our goal is to ensure the positive and hopeful experience we create improves their psychological state, which is critical to dealing with the impacts of serious illness and a key component in better outcomes for patients.

 

Choosing Frames

Winter is a great time to think about your framing needs. From family photos to recent art acquisitions we have a huge selection of moldings to suit your taste, to enhance a painting’s beauty, make it period appropriate, or preserve it for the ages, we have the perfect frame for your fine art. Since its opening, Petley Jones Gallery has offered the highest quality in conservation framing. All framing is done in-house by our own experienced framer

The right frame can make all the difference in a work of art. John Horton has been framing his paintings in a traditional gold frame and liner. I have used Larson Juhl’s interactive frame designer to try a new look. Click on the thumbnails to have a closer look. How would you frame this painting?

Amelia Alcock-White’s “All from the Sea”, is headlining the first ever Ocean Art Exhibition. Join the Vancouver Aquarium, Vancouver Art Gallery, Ocean Networks Canada, Opus Art Supplies and Coastal America for Canada’s first Ocean Art Exhibition!

As “6th&Fir” welcomes it’s new residents the street is clear again for parking. Don’t forget we also have a loading spot right in front of the gallery for picking up or dropping off.