Landscape #2 (Air and Water)

About Landscape #2 (Air and Water)

The distinctive contemporary paintings of Milly Ristvedt now grace the walls of the National Gallery of Canada. Ristvedt’s storied career as an abstract artist has positioned her as one of the country’s finest. Known for her intuitive use of colour and her bold form, Ristvedt continues to elevate her art form with new work. This is one of a series of landscapes rendered in fresh, modern colours—turquoise, white, sunny yellow, royal blue and tomato red. The canvas is divided in two (Air and Water) and vertical lines of different widths run across the colour field. These works follow an earlier series of landscapes created in 2014 that were inspired by “a view of a stand of poplars in a snow-covered landscape under a sunset sky as I drove along a country road. (MR)”

“The four Landscape paintings go beyond the visual memory of a landscape scene and refer to musings on the elements of air, water, and weather in their interaction with the earth and other life forms – trees in this instance – that issue from it.” Milly Ristvedt

Milly Ristvedt was born in British Columbia and studied at the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr University). Her first solo exhibit was at the Carmen Lamanna Gallery in Toronto. In the late 1960s, Ristvedt shared a studio with famed Canadian painter Jack Bush, met art critic Clement Greenberg and was inspired by American painters Jules Olitiski and Frank Stella. Her work has been included in many publications, She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2004 and honoured with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
She has won seven Canada Council awards and two Ontario Arts Council awards and had over 50 solo exhibitions and been part of countless group shows. Ristvedt's work can be found in major public collections throughout North America including the National Gallery of Canada.

Milly Ristvedt is represented exclusively by the Oeno Gallery.