Objects

Viewing Record 87 of 154
Previous Record  Next Record
Switch Views: Lightbox | Image List | List

Item Name: Print
Title: Surfscape West
Maker: Ron Bolt
Year: 1979
Country: Canadian
Materials: serigraph
Measurements: in frame: 65.5 cm x 81 cm; work: 52 cm x 69 cm
ID Number: PC2017.12
Legal Status: PERMANENT COLLECTION


Extended Label Info: Ron Bolt has travelled and painted the coastal and river waterways of Canada, including Newfoundland and the Arctic. He finds a sense of connection with the earth in these rock formations, shorelines, mountains and seascapes, a feeling of awe and the sacred. In his early artwork, Bolt was profoundly influenced by the emotional aesthetics and abstraction of the colour field painter Mark Rothko and adopted a minimal approach to his subject matter. Over time, as Bolt travelled and worked, his artwork developed into more complex compositions, richer colour and more expressive brush work. In his current work, Bolt uses the camera as a sketching tool, collecting imagery which he then composes into highly detailed, even photo-realist paintings. The tradition of finding the sublime in nature began in painting with the work of Caspar David Friedrich, and was termed the "Northern Romantic Tradition" by critic Robert Rosenblum. Rosenblum traces the theme of the sublime through Turner, Constable, and the Pre-Raphaelites into the work of the abstract expressionists. This artwork, “Surfscape West” is a serigraph, or silkscreen print. This method of printing can incorporate photography and drawing, using simplification to create colour separations which lends itself to abstraction. Ronald William (Ron) Bolt (1938 - ) Born in Toronto, Ron Bolt is a painter, printmaker, commercial artist and muralist working in oil, acrylic, lithography and collage. He trained at Northern Secondary School, graduating as gold medalist (1955), and then studied at Ryerson Polytechnic School (1957) and the Ontario College of Art (1958) before earning his Associateship Diploma (1961) at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Currently based in Northumberland County Ontario, Bolt often travels to gather ideas for his work. Over his long career, he has exhibited throughout Canada and internationally, in the United States, Mexico, England, Japan and China. Commissions include government murals, books, and both corporate and private installations. His artwork is held in numerous public and private collections.