Still Life with Bouquet

Unlike many Canadian artists who found inspiration in the landscape, Roberts was not a painter of winter. Renowned for his unique practice of completing most of his artworks in a single sitting, lasting 3-4 hours, this method posed distinct challenges during the winter. He ingeniously painted his winter landscapes from the comfort of indoor spaces. In the colder months he resolved important compositions with objects in his home and studio. A juxtaposition of sometimes the same objects, but with relationships different from other works, Roberts achieves a different but aesthetically outstanding work, one of the best of its type.

Goodridge Roberts was one of Canada’s most versatile artists, equally brilliant in his depiction of the still life as he was in the landscape as he was with the nude, usually but not exclusively the female.

In Norman McLaren’s 1991 publication titled On the Creative Process, edited by Donald McWilliams, Norman McLaren wrote:

“As a painter, one of your training is to see a thing as an abstract thing. When you look at a group of objects, it’s not just this object and that object, it’s also the relationship between the two, the shading, etc. You analyze it, it’s no longer a crucifix or a plant leaf. It’s a green shape with a curve and a darkening on one side. I think the painter automatically sees a scene as an abstraction — even in the process of doing a painting that is completely realistic.

In art, you want to stress some things which you feel are important. If you eliminate the things that aren’t important you arrive at the things you want to say very quickly.” [1]

This explains the excitement and challenges of an artist like Goodridge Roberts particularly in his paintings of still lifes, but in other subject matter as well.

_________________________________

Footnote: 

[1] Norman McLaren, On the Creative Process, ed. by Donald McWilliams (Montreal: National Film Board of Canada, 1991), 43.