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Item Name: Drawing
Title: Broken Rock
Maker: Barry Hodgson
Year: 1983
Country: Canadian
Materials: ink and pastel on paper
Measurements: work: 56.25 cm x 51 cm
ID Number: ART 122
Legal Status: ART RENTAL


Extended Label Info: Barry Hodgson focuses on Canadian landscapes as his subject matter, using a loose and expressive style to explore the energy or mood of a scene. He prefers this method of abstraction over detailed realism, as it conveys his experience of place, stating "Any work of mine would seem incredibly sterile and incomplete if I limited it to an inventory of the surface details of the objects." Hodgson uses a variety of media to draw and paint: ink, pastel, oil paint, and watercolour. In this ink and pastel drawing, Hodgson focuses on a detail in a landscape, the cracks in a rock. There is a stark contrast between the quick pink pastel lines he uses to build up the image of the granite boulder and the dark brushstrokes of black ink that define the harsh shadows and deep fissures that have split the rock. Bold reds and brown build the mid-tones, and a few zips of green lead our eye to the center of his composition. Viewed from a distance these quickly sketched lines suggest a closeup of a rocky embankment in the Canadian Shield, with dark water behind the broken boulder. Barry Hodgson graduated from the University of Guelph, Ontario and has been working as an artist since the 1980s. Though Hodgson often travels to paint, and works out in the landscape, “en plein air”, his studio and home are in Hamilton, Ontario. His work is discussed in several publications, "On the Edge, Artistic Visions of a Shrinking Landscape” The Boston Mills Press (1995); and "Barry Hodgson: Landscapes" Macdonald Stewart Art Centre (1985). Awards include an Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Grant (2010) and an Artist-in Residence, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland (2006). His work can be found in numerous private and public collections including the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Alberta Art Foundation, and the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre. He is represented by the Madrona Gallery (Victoria) and by the Ingram Gallery (Toronto).