Winter Green

About Winter Green

This large contemporary abstract painting by Milly Ristvedt is one of her colourful ribbons series.

Painted in 1969, Winter Green is one of a series of compositions created when the artist was just 27 years old and shared a Toronto studio with the famed abstract expressionist Jack Bush. Ristvedt’s ‘Ribbon’ paintings featured gestural brushstrokes--vertical and angled ‘ribbons’ of colour that fanned out across the entire canvas. The visual effect is reminiscent of the child’s game of pick-up sticks. Winter Green has a rich palette of hues of green from light to dark, deep blue, dark gray, orange, red and burgundy played against a neutral backdrop. Famed art historian Barry Lord observed at the time that Ristvedt's paintings were "more insistent than Bush, more consciously structured than Molinari."

"The nature of my art is to resist words; a consequence of the basic premise of freedom of interpretation offered by abstract art, and my enduring belief in colour in painting as a language that can speak to mind, body and soul." Milly Ristvedt

“Ristvedt’s history, replete with accomplishments and honours, still fails to prepare a viewer for the inventiveness, technical brilliance and dynamism of her canvases. The three works now part of the national collection show something of this uncommon degree of achievement.” Adam Welch, Assoc. Curator, Modern Art, Art Gallery of Ont.

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.