Water, Ice + Hotspot
More Works By Milly Ristvedt, RCA Acrylic on Canvas 2024
81 × 64 in
205.74 × 162.56 cm
FRAMED
82.5 × 65.5 in
209.55 × 166.37 cm
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This contemporary colourful abstract painting is by Milly Ristvedt.Highly regarded for her intuitive, almost visceral sense of colour and her lyrical, expressive form, Ristvedt is considered one of Canada’s foremost abstract artists. Her storied career was initially inspired by the avant-garde work of abstract expressionists such as Canada’s Jack Bush and America’s Morris Louis. Early in her six-decade-long career, Milly Ristvedt understood the transformational power of colour to convey a mood, add light and depth to a composition. This large piece is a curated mix of expressive gestural form and hard-edge imagery that suggests landscape. Against a cool ‘water-coloured’ background of various blues (azure, deep blue) expressed in fluid form, several graphic shapes appear to float around the canvas. The bright white, yellow and orange colours of these shapes draw the viewer’s eye.
“The rhythm and flow of my paintings are the rhythm and flow of my life, the necessity is to show what I have seen, felt, understood and intuited. The latter is my grace. It’s my connection with all that is much larger than myself.” 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 Olitski 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 has 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.
