A Life Stilled In Transit - Isobel, 1999. acrylic on masonite. 106.7 x 48.2 cm.

A Life Stilled

In Transit - Isobel, 1999. acrylic on masonite. 106.7 x 48.2 cm

Project Plan

• Select an individual or social issue that means a great deal to you:– Relative, Friend, World Leader– Poverty, Health, Violence, Environment, etc

• Gather items that represent that person/issue– The physical items are preferable over a photo or

internet image• Create a still-life that captures that person’s

character, moment in their life, or message of social importance

History• Still-life painting as an independent genre first

flourished in the Netherlands during the early 1600s• The rise of still-life painting in the Northern and

Spanish Netherlands reflects the increasing urbanization of Dutch and Flemish society

• Response: Why would increased urbanization result in a rise in still-life?

• Citation: The Metropolis Museum of Art• Liedtke, Walter. "Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe, 1600–

1800 ". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nstl/hd_nstl.htm (October 2003)

Example: Dutch Still-life• One of the earliest dated

still lifes by Claesz.• A Haarlem painter who gave

extraordinary presence to familiar things.

• “Here a skull, an overturned glass roemer, an expired lamp, and the attributes of a writer, suggest that worldly efforts are ultimately in vain.”

• Response: What about these details “suggest that worldly efforts are ultimately in vain”?

• Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628Pieter Claesz (Dutch)Oil on wood; 24.1 x 35.9 cmRogers Fund, 1949

Example: Post-Impressionist Still-life• Cézanne‘s unique methods

influenced the art of Cubists, Fauvists, and successive generations of avant-garde artists.

• Instead of light and shadow, he experimented with subtly gradated colour variations to create dimension in his objects.

• Ignores the laws of classical perspective, allowing each object to be independent within the space of a picture – The Metropolis Museum of Art

• Voorhies, James. "Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pcez/hd_pcez.htm (October 2004)

• Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses, 1890. Paul Cézanne (French,) Oil on canvas; 73 x 92.4 cm. Bequest of Sam A. Lewisohn, 1951

Inspiration: E. Nancy Stevens

• “IN TRANSIT is my autobiography. The paintings and drawings, ideas and images, are an exploration of the nature of experience and the unknowables of existence.”– From “Description of

Exhibit” http://www.enancystevens.ca

• In Transit – Edith, 1999, acrylic on masonite, 106.7 x 48.2cm

E. Nancy Stevens

• Nancy Stevens switches between realism and abstraction, but all her work is about ordering experience.

• Her father died during the Second World War. “A lot of things happened in my early life, so order is how I coped”

• http://thechronicleherald.ca/thenovascotian/1162697-at-the-galleries-order-imagination-unite-in-stevens-artwork

Education/Training• Studied with Alex Colville at

Mount Allison University (1953-56). Mary Pratt was a fellow student and friend.

• Year of study in Montreal with Arthur Lismer of the Group of Seven

• Worked as a graphic artist doing illustrative promotions at the CBC

• Taught at NSCAD from 1990-97 STFX from 1996- recent retirement

Arthur Lismer, “Bright Lands”, 1938

Alex Colville, “Horse and Train”, 1954

Mary Pratt, “Bowl’d Banana “, 1981

Iconography in “William”• Book: Canadians in Khaki

= he fought in the Boer War

• Railway watch = his work for CNR

• Spoon = souvenir from his travels as a youth

• Apple = wisdom, knowledge, goodness

• Citation: McElroy, Gil. “Falling From Grace” Nancy Stevens: In-Transit. Charlottetown: Confederation Centre Art Gallery & Museum, 2001, p.13

• In Transit – William, 1999, acrylic on masonite, 106.7 x 48.2cm

Iconography in “An Apple A Day”• Apple = Christian and educational

values• Chocolate = wealth, gluttony,

corruption of the healthy apple• Apple sticker = number of dead in

the earthquake. Our consumption of this tragedy.

• Copper fork = Chile’s main export• Glass objects = a glass wall through

which the apples view the Chilean earthquake; the voyeuristic distance.

• Knife = violence aimed towards the “outside world”

• Newspaper = sensationalization of world events

• Ryan Josey. An Apple a Day, 2010, oil on canvas. ~16x20

• http://www.ednet.ns.ca/pdfdocs/curriculum/Artists_in_Schools_2011-12-Broch.pdf