Bell and Hedge, 1972 (June-July)
71.8 x 146.7 cm
Inscriptions
titled, inscribed, dated, signed, and further inscribed by the artist in black ink, ‘BELL AND HEDGE' / EGG TEMPERA / JUNE - JULY 1972 / Tom Forrestall’ (verso, upper right).Provenance
Private collection, Montreal.Tom Forrestall is an extraordinary artist from Atlantic Canada, one of the foremost proponents of what is often termed “Magic Realism”. There is no more knowledgeable student of his career than Tom Smart, presently Director of the Beaverbrook Gallery. Dr. Smart, over his lengthy and distinguished career as curator and director, has addressed Forrestall’s paintings in numerous writings. In 2010, an announcement of the exhibition at McMichael Canadian Art Collection, curated by Dr. Smart, Tom Forrestall: Paintings, Drawings , Writings, reads,
His drawings record his artistic vocabulary and capture his visions from his imagination and the spirit of what he sees with his eyes. His writings explore and record ideas relating to his artistic and spiritual life, his family, and his surroundings, and probe the nature of his creativity, his hopes and dreams, and the source of his visions [1].
This composition shows a bell, one that is today located on the steps at the front entrance of St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church, a few minutes walk from the Beaverbrook Gallery where Forrestall had a short career as a curator before turning to painting full time. The bell is inscribed with the acronym AMDG (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam) means All For the Greater Glory of God. Complemented in the right lens by a supernatural light reflected off the foliage, with a modicum of contemplation one would uncover the spirituality described above.
Endnotes
1. McMichael Canadian Art Collection, "Tom Forrestall: Paintings, Drawings, Writings January 30, 2010 - April 25, 2010", http://mcmichael.com, n.d.
