“ I would like to thank you for sending the images of the three paintings that make up your Celebration Triptych. I appreciate the spirit in which you have shared your works, and I embrace the sentiments which are expressed through them: inclusiveness and ensuring a brighter future for everyone.”
Kathleen Wynne – Premier of Ontario - Toronto, Canada

Celebration Tryptych

In 2014 I began making visual studies for a canvas panel based upon the word `Celebration`.

After working within and around the idea of Carnivals, Fiestas, and Parades, ticker tape flags, bunting, and coloured paper, gently floating and falling in space, a problem arose. How do I include the people of the world?

Well it was obvious that one panel of 36`` x 36`` would not be enough and so the idea of a triptych was born. It seemed ideal and in earlier times it was often used to depict religious themes, stories of epic battles and portraits of Rulers, around the world. ! Concept and form was fixed but what about technique ? I could paint, draw, spray, but needed something new, and spontaneous. Thinking about the music of Celebration, rhythms, samba, Sousa and in between and beyond I thought of woodwind and brass musicians using oboes, flutes. tubas, trumpets, blowing through reeds and mouthpieces.

I experimented applying paint and pushing it,drawing and shaping by blowing through a straw, to draw, shape, drag, push using different strengths of breath. When each colour was dry another was added and after six were applied and all were dry they began to make other colours which was what I wanted. Controlling the paint became quite easy and allowed for accidental new colour combinations and arrangements.

For me the work means fun, for everyone to enjoy . Excitement, music, and dance to embrace the past, enjoy the present and look forward to the future.

Slaves were allowed just one day a year to celebrate their own identity.

Gwyn Vaughan Williams

The Triptych offers design possibilities for stained glass, mosaic, and textiles.