Alex Colville

Hound in Field, 1958

Susan, my talented artist bloggy friend from Nova Scotia, thought that

I might enjoy the artwork of the Canadian artist Alex Colville, since I

like Andrew Wyeth's works. And she was so right! The soft tempera

paintings are simple, realistic and his subject matter very ordinary,

which, in my opinion, makes them extraordinary. Colville worked as

one of Canada's most famous war artists in WWII, painting troops

landing on Juno Beach on D-Day. He returned to Nova Scotia after the

war where he was a member of the faculty at Mount Allison University's

fine arts department until he left to devote himself to painting full time.

Horse and Train, 1954

Colville's Horse and Train was inspired by two lines of the 1949

poem "Dedication to Mary Campbell" by the South African Poet Roy

Campbell. The painting is simple, yet I think very haunting and

complex. This piece, like many of his works, has a surreal and quite

magical quality about it.

.

Against a regiment I oppose a brain
And a dark horse against an armored train.

Alex Colville, by Arnaud Maggs