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glenn priestley days of winter glenn priestley says he paints and draws tobogganers the way edgar degas painted ballerinas not to glorify the subject matter particularly but because the subject matter comes imbued with all sorts of interesting elements for artistic consideration there s the question of light of course whether it s capturing the cold hard edges of a crisp winter s day or the soft golden rays that provide just enough light for one more heart-pounding run down a snowy hill and there s movement too but rather than gliding into pirouettes like degas dancers priestley s subjects are captured in the precious moments of pause between trips down snow-covered slopes his sled-wielding children contemplate whether the trudge back up-hill is worth the effort it usually is they tolerate being bundled up by their parents against the biting chill and they sometimes reluctantly allow those same parents to carry them home at the end of an exhausting day gazing out at us as if pleading for one last run as interested as he is in light and movement however priestley is fundamentally concerned with technique and composition he constructs eloquent balanced images where no element reads as an after-thought compelled by the language of painting priestley has confessed his own fascination with the complexities inherent in adding elements to a scene every new figure he says adds a level of compositional complexity akin to a composer adding instruments to a musical work some of priestley s most daring works however are those wherein he opts to leave large portions of the surface unfinished in these his subjects emerge out of yet-unrealized spaces like moments of pristine truth and beauty in an otherwise uncertain world they are physical manifestations of the drawing process boldly straddling sketch and highly polished likeness they balance in an ambiguous place that leaves just enough room for our own imaginations to come and fill in the gaps to finish the story though he now lives in saint john new brunswick priestley grew up in scarborough ontario that s why the tobogganing hill he often depicts is tabor hill the same one he slid down as a boy it s fundamental to note however that priestley s work never slides into the kind of sentimentality that might go hand-in hand with depicting children or indeed ones own memories instead these works triumph a more objective observing of the past they celebrate the shape of it allow us to gaze upon the familiar without wading into nostalgia ultimately we can t help but bring our own narratives to priestley s work seeking out stories is after all a human impulse his images conjure up our own memories of play they invite us back to the place where having the wind whip at our faces as we hurtled down snowy hills was the most carefree feeling in the world and where succumbing to momentum and the will of the sled provided it s own precious freedom meredith dault january 2010 at kingston on[close]
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standing blue green oil and charcoal on board 36 x 35 in days of winter glenn priestley[close]
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