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| Sleepwalker 2012 Triptych - Each panel 54" x 24" |
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| "Parachutist" 2011 72"X60" |
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| "Offshore" 2011 72"X60" |
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| "Cold Front" 2011 54"X48" |
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| "Portrait with Light Switch" 2011 24"X20" |
This is the kind of painting that made me want to be an artist when I was a kid: full of energy and life, beautifully executed, and just off kilter enough to be absolutely mesmerizing. Some of it makes me think of
Odd Nerdrum with a sense of humor, or an early
Lucian Freud who gets outside a bit more. There's all kinds of comparisons that spring to my mind but none that really strike home, for the work is idiomatic and the idiom is all Paul Fenniak. The painting is traditional but richly so, and beautifully handled. It lends a depth and luminosity to his somewhat whimsical drawing style. And both of these serve to give an uncanny power to his antic narratives, narratives that seem to cross all kinds of emotional and physical states: disquiet, calm, urgency, pathos, humor, the spiritual, the inane. These are not scenes from real life of course. They're intensely contrived, often bordering on the absurd or the surreal, but as in any form of art, from fiction to film, it is not always realism that best reflects how it really feels to be alive.
There's much more to look at on his website:
www.paulfenniak.com
and the work at his gallery (
forumgallery.com) has a very nice detail viewer that allows you to scroll over the work and get a close up view of every part of the painting. Well worth it!
Yes Paul Fenniak is an enigma. Here are his paintings...but there is very little on the man himself and his methodology. There are very few articles about him, his influences, his muse, his process, and so on....He lives in Montreal...but works and works...does no classes, rarely offers glimpses into who he is. I have always been totally in awe of his work...and find him a wonderful inspiration. It would be wonderful if you would do an interview with him...or at least find out more about his method and approach to painting. Thanks for posting this...he should be more well known in the world. (P.S. There are many really awesome painters up here in Canada. Another to take a look at is Fabian Jean, also from Montreal.)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. interesting. I can certainly sympathize with some anonymity. I have posted a lot of Canadian artists in the past. I find they are less adverse to realism and narrative than most artists south of the border. I posted Fabain Jean's work quite recently.
ReplyDeletehttp://artoutthere.blogspot.com/2012/08/fab:an-jean.html
Thanks for considering...unable to link to the fabain Jean link you posted...does not come up at all. Yes...he is an interesting artist as well...among many others. Great site...thanks for all of your hard work and dedication ...have been introduced to many artists I may have otherwise never heard off...Thanks.
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