Read David Macfarlane's text on From Gros Morne to Fogo
WATCH | JOHN HARTMAN & SARA ANGEL IN CONVERSATION
Nicholas Metivier Gallery is pleased to announce From Gros Morne to Fogo: New Paintings and Watercolours, an exhibition of recent works by John Hartman. The exhibition will open on April 29th and run until May 19th.
Newfoundland is not a new subject for John Hartman but the way in which he has depicted it in this latest body of work is. His first travelled there in the mid 1990s and returned annually until 2005. During this period, he visited and sketched almost every community along the coast. Narrative has always been an integral part of his practice and he stayed at bed & breakfasts and dropped into restaurants and taverns to learn about the local stories. He filled eighteen sketchbooks, (which he referenced again recently for the current show), and Newfoundland quickly became one of his favorite places to paint. After a short hiatus while he was working on his CITIES project, Hartman returned to Newfoundland and by this time, he had developed a deep connection with the terrain and its inhabitants.
In the fall of 2022, Hartman was in Newfoundland for the opening of Many Lives Mark This Place, his current museum exhibition featuring over thirty portraits of Canadian authors, painted above the landscape they are most inspired by. While he was there, he drove along the coastline, discovering areas he had never been before including Lark Harbour and Little Port. He made watercolour sketches and took photographs on site.
When he returned to his studio in Lafontaine, Ontario, Hartman began making larger watercolours and experimented with vivid colour including cobalt turquoise for the water and fuchsia to describe the rock formations. He also lowered the horizon line to accommodate larger and more turbulent skies – an important development that began with his Breaking Weather series in 2020. These new, energetic depictions of Newfoundland convey the essence of place through colour and light, allowing the viewer to experience the awe-inspiring beauty as well as the visceral qualities of being there.
It’s as if Hartman is painting the air – the feel of the air – and because he gets that so precisely right, his strange perspectives and map-like landscapes feel weirdly realistic. Port au Choix doesn’t look like that. And yet, it does. The water between Woody Point and Norris Point wasn’t so blue. And yet, it was. The light wasn’t ever like that when I was in Fogo Harbour. And yet, it was. Exactly like.
- David Macfarlane
