Nuvu Blue

About Nuvu Blue

This colourful abstract expressionist painting is by the award-winning artist Milly Ristvedt.

For decades, Milly Ristvedt has explored the unlimited potential and power of colour to express emotion. Highly regarded internationally as a masterful colourist, Ristvedt’s chosen genre has always been abstract expressionism.
This is one of a group of paintings that also illustrates the influence of minimalism—the paring down of form to its essential elements.
The canvas of Nuvu blue is awash in vivid colour—swaths of deep blue, teal and mandarin in centre frame play against a backdrop of bright red gestural brushstrokes and glimpses of dark gray. Fine lines of bright yellow, blue and turquoise markings float throughout the canvas adding to the visual energy of the piece.

“The influence of abstract expressionism, colour field and minimalism is evident in the earliest paintings. This gave way in the mid-seventies to an intuitive, spontaneous, and visceral way of working that more directly engaged with my life in the world – relationship to the land, the forces of nature, and a broader and deeper expression of thought and emotion.” Milly Ristvedt

Milly Ristvedt was born in British Columbia and studied at the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr University). She held her first solo exhibit at the prestigious 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.