Not for Sale - The Art of Canadian Abstract Expressionist Painter Selwyn Owen - abridged version - .

Selwyn Owen

Not For Sale A Project Lifeworld E-Publication - 2019

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Selwyn Owen - Not for Sale ISBN Published in 2013 by LIfeworld E-Publications 72 Ellsworth Avenue Toronto - Ontario - M6G 2K3 e-mail:

Distributed in Canada by

Distributed in the United States by

A Project Lifeworld E-Publication - 2019 Project Management and Design : Pierre Ouellet

Selwyn circa 1972

Not For Sale Text by Pierre Ouellet

Photography by Brefni Shuttleworth John Jaques Pierre Ouellet Rachael Owen

With an Introduction by Georges Rackus

Introduction by George Rackus “Here’s a young man that definitely has talent,” these were the thoughts that went through my mind as I looked over his work in considering him for inclusion into the list of exhibiting artists of the Picture Loan Gallery, No. 3, Charles St. W. in Toronto.

That was back in 1972. Now, many exhibitions later, exhibitions that have been witness to the growth and development of the personal, dynamic style of Selwyn Owen, I am pleased to see that I have not been proven wrong. The maturing process of a visual artist does not happen overnight, and time determines the depth and scope that one is capable of reaching, of probing, that inner psyche that can bring forth noble works of art.

Selwyn Owen’s development as a painter has been of a very singular nature.

Mainly self-taught, he applied himself to that task with diligence and perseverance gaining considerable insight into the world of Art, from the Classics to Contemporary Art. The Impressionists particularly opened up new ways of looking at space and colour, and for this young artist it provided a launching platform that hurtled him forward into the era of Abstract Expressionism.

“Finding oneself,” is the kind of open ended comment where one seldom expects a conclusion. For Selwyn Owen, the “genre” of Abstract Expression has, I believe, provided an open-

ended playing field for his love of colour and use of diverse forms.

His renderings of “Habitats” and city streets undergoes unusual transformation into optic compositions that have a sense of monumentality about them.

This approach is highly inventive and defines Selwyn Owen’s creative individuality. Selwyn is an artist of considerable scope and versatility on those areas that he has undertaken to explore.

Self-Portrait - 1968

91 x 121 cm - 1970’s

Studio at Pigeon Lake

Foreword…………………………………….............

Preface ……………………………………….............

Table of Content... ……………………….............

Chronology ………………………………...............

A poem by John Jaques....... …………..............

Early Works ...................................................

Found Objects ..............................................

Portholes of Perception ................................

The Boxer Series ...........................................

The House Series ..........................................

Abstract Impressions ....................................

Forms and Figures ........................................

Shapes and Grids ..........................................

Abstract Landscapes ....................................

Works on Paper ............................................

Artist Statement ...........................................

Reflecting Memory - Abstraction, Experience and Remembering in the Painting(s) of Selwyn Owen - .................

4 5-6 8 9-10 11 12-24 25-33 34-37 38-43 44-50 51-56 57-63 64-70 71-77 78-82 83-88 90-104

Chronology of Works Early Works 1960 - 1970

Found Objects 1970’s

Portholes of Perception 1970’s

The Boxer Series 1970 - 1980

The House Series 1980 - 1990

Abstract Impressions 1970 to present

Forms and Figures 1970 to present

Shapes and Grids 1970 to present

Abstract Landscapes 1970 to present

Works on Paper

There is no mystery to these thoughts Openings to a dream,‌ The words are indeed deceptive.

There is no path to pursue The madness nor the sanity, for these are words and he is the painter.

And what blindness has driven us here?

Your with your exquisite madness, Surrounded with the music of light and space Surrounded with the strangeness of life Alone and naked under that white sky Of relentless truths and ambitions John Jaques - 1987

Early Works

1960 - 1970

Dynamic Tensions

152 x 152 cm - 1970

Moments of Future Past

46 x 61 cm - late 1970’s

Triessence

46 x 61 cm - late 1970’s

I don’t want to refer to it as an intellectual process… I suppose that some of that takes places… as far as the mind goes… If I try to actually think about something… and program myself… and paint with that in mind… it does not stay… I don’t stay the course…

Untitled

The timelessness of Color

76 x 76 cm - 1970’s

Ambiguous Moment

76 x 76 cm - 1970’s

76 x 76 cm - 1970’s

Joy and Impact of Understanding

76 x 76 cm - 1970’s

Found Objects

1970’s

Vertical Vehicle

46 x 46 cm - 1970’s

Beam and Spoke - Installation Piece

photos by Brefni Shuttleworth

Portholes of Perception

1970s

“Fifty pieces of wood that I found… each of which are about 15 inches by fifteen inches and each of which had a circle cut out of them…And I believe that they were panels that would go into the old buildings for stove pipes to go through…

So I picked up all of the wood and I cut small pieces of canvas which I stapled to the back and that would give me the relief area in the middle and then I got down to painting it as a group…”

All square - 38 x 38 cm - 1970’s

The Boxer Series

1970 to 1980

Boxer #3

46 x 46 cm - 1970’s

Boxer # 31 I’ll paint along the lines of something that stimulated me for a long period of time… or sometimes for a short period of time… I just finished a grouping that has taken me five years… six years…

Boxer # 9

72 x 121 cm - 1970’s

For five or six years, whenever I approached a piece of paper… quite often a canvas…

I would make … initially the same marks… I would start in the same direction.. and the piece would evolve out of that… but always I start the same marks… It became a place to start.

38 x 61 cm - 1970’s

The House Series

1970 - 1980

Foreclosure

Nailing the deal

46 x 46 cm - 1970’s

Clear View

91 x 91 cm - 1970’s

Public House

46 x 46 cm - 1970’s

46 x 46 cm - 1970’s

Table for two

Houseboat

61 x 46 cm - 1970’s

46 x 46 cm - 1970’s

City of God

193 x 81 cm - 1970’s

The house form … that sort of typical form that I have used for years.. is almost I think a metaphysical symbol…

Its physical in that it is easily identifiable as something that a child might draw as the shape of a house … and its metaphysical in that its not filled in with a door and windows… Its just a place to think through and a place to see though and a place to gaze along with…

Demographic house

46 x 46 cm - 1970’s

That particular one almost looks like a house on a springboard… There’s a tension that comes in from the bottom… and that sort of unfilled grid system in the middle makes it look like an unpainted house or a house that’s been painted in by the squares and that one ran out of paint…

Abstract Impressions

1970 to present

Logjam

25 x 36 cm - 1970’s

Munich - 1972

76 x 107 cm - 1973

Forms and Figures

1970 to present

Lady in Waiting

182 x 152 cm - 1970’s

Christ on the Cross

182 x 136 cm - 1970’s

Pueblito and Child

121 x 153 cm - 1970’s

Shape and Grid

1970 to 2000

Eternity

76 x 76 cm - 1970’s

Abundance

61 x 76 cm - 1970’s

Sign Language

46 x 56 cm - mid 1980’s

Abstract Landscapes

1980 to present

Plein Air

51 x 76 cm - 1980

Lake Superior - travelling panels

61 x 38 cm - 1980’s

61 x 38 cm - 1980’s

61 x 38 cm - 1990’s

82 x 112 cm - 1990’s

Lake Superior - travelling panels

30 x 20 cm - 1980’s

30 x 20 cm - 1980’s

30 x 20 cm - 1980’s

Snow

61 x 38 cm - 1970’s

Works on Paper

Always

All drawings from notebooks

The Newcastle Series 28 x 21 cm - 2010-12

A Project Lifeworld E-Publication 2012 - All rights reserved