Winter Solstice

About Winter Solstice

A Canadian artist created this abstract painting, its geometric pattern in green and indigo blue.

Milly Ristvedt’s masterful and intuitive use of color and geometric form are evident in this piece—one of several paintings that use the repetitive grid pattern. Considered one of Canada’s finest abstract expressionist artists, Ristvedt did a series of paintings in the 1990s where she experimented with the orderly pattern of a classic grid.
This grid—is composed of reseda green and indigo colors. The paint has been applied in gentle washes that soften each rectangle in the composition. The warm green and the cool blue fuse at the edges, adding subtle variations to each color's tones.

“In this painting and others of the period, maker and material, gesture and painted surface, are ordered into meaning through the use of the grid. The contradiction to this ordering is the wonderful freedom allowed by color, in particular.” Milly Ristvedt

Ristvedt’s paintings are uncompromising in their formalism and their preoccupation with the primary elements of colour and space in art. They are cellular examinations of the visual experience of paintings, beyond the image, beyond its pleasing shape.” Jeff Mahoney, The Hamilton Spectator

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. 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.