Pink with Coal Grey

About Pink with Coal Grey

This abstract floral still-life, contemporary painting was created by Jennifer Hornyak.

Early in her four-decade-plus career, Hornyak was inspired by the Fauvist palette—rich, dark colours that remain a perennial favourite. In form, her floral series of oil paintings lay somewhere between figuration and abstraction. This piece features a bouquet of flowers in a vase painted in pale hues of pink, white, blush and green which pops against a dark coal grey background. Hornyak’s signature use of free-form brushstrokes and layer upon layer of paint add a dynamic visible texture. Each painting usually begins with a sketch. Often Jennifer Hornyak then experiments with acrylics as a foundation for the oil painting that follows. In the past few years, much of her art has explored floral themes. But for Hornyak flowers are not ‘just flowers’—they are metaphors for life.

“I like rich dark palettes that echo the classics but are rendered in a more contemporary, abstract way.” Jennifer Hornyak

Jennifer Hornyak studied at the Grimsby School of Art in England. In 1961, she moved to Montreal where she attended McGill University, the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Centre Saidye Bronfman.
Hornyak has exhibited throughout North America and Europe including the Paris World Exhibition in 1987 where her work was shown alongside that of Modigliani, Picasso and van Dongen. Hornyak’s work is represented in many private and corporate collections including Bombardier Transport, Burroughs Wellcome, McCarthy Tétrault, Power Corporation and Hyatt Regency Hotel.