Gurevich Fine Art is pleased to announce the addition of Mitchell Fenton to our artist roster.
Fenton’s enthusiasm and love for the outdoors underlies the brushstrokes in his paintings of breathtaking Canadian landscapes, particularly those of the Canadian Rockies and much of the country’s west. Fenton paints plein air—meaning “in open air”—with oil on small wood panels. His portable set-up enables him to hike into remote areas like Lake O'Hara. This process allows him to follow in the proverbial footsteps of great painters that came before him such as John Singer Sargent, J.E.H. MacDonald, and Lawren Harris.
The trails around Lake O’Hara’s three intersecting valleys are popular among artists and hikers alike; they have been tended and maintained for more than a century. Of his venture into these sublime realms of nature, Fenton says: “It is not the destination, but the journey that is more important.” For Fenton, and as his works may demonstrate, inspiriting is the anticipation of stopping to begin a composition; the small details of the lichen and wildflowers; cropped abstract patterns of rocks meeting a lake; or the perfect alignment of a grand vista. He seeks authenticity in environment. Back in the studio, some panels are chosen and worked up into larger canvasses. His works are intended to help us acknowledge and understand our connection with the land and the ways in which it shapes our history, our culture, and our livelihoods.
Fenton was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1962. He graduated from Ontario College of Art with a degree in the interdisciplinary field of Experimental Arts, splitting his time between sculpture and painting. After graduating, he completed two major public art sculptures in Toronto, Ontario, both for Artscape. For the last 16 years, the now Ontario-based Fenton has devoted his time to painting.
You can see some of Fenton’s work on display at Gurevich Fine Art.
