Joseph (Joe) Francis Plaskett

Cowley Abbott Auction House Biography and Notes

Joseph Plaskett is a painter known for his colourful palette, light-drenched still-lifes and portraits. He exhibits his pastels and canvases, which he describes as searches for "meaning" in colour, in both international and Canadian galleries. Plaskett was born in 1918 in New Westminster, BC. After graduating from UBC, he taught History in schools for six years while attending the Vancouver School of Art at night. He studied in Banff, San Francisco, New York, London, and Paris before moving to Paris in 1951. The romance of Paris and its society nurtured him. He painted still lifes, intimate interiors, and portraits of friends in his space. "Everything can happen within the space of a room" the artist once said. He spends part of the year in England and continues to paint his chosen subjects. As the art critic Michael Scott writes: "What hasn't changed is Plaskett's remarkable assurance with paint. He may be deconstructing his still lifes, but the superb quality of painting is the same. Surfaces are built of layers of pigment, smooth skins of colour glowing from beneath. And where Plaskett pulls away the surface colour saturated corals, pungent mauves, lime greens, bursts of lemon show through." His works are in public art gallery collections from Prince Edward Island to Vancouver Island, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Plaskett received the Order of Canada in the spring of 2001 for excellence in the field of visual art.