Brothers

Provenance:
Private Collection, Montreal
Notes:
Even in Montreal’s deepest winter, rusting freight trains are always his surface of choice, every time he walks to the train yard a composition will come to his mind. Never using sketches, Labrona’s oil stick drawings on trains are kind of sketches in themselves - he always thinks and refers to his photo album of freight train paintings like a sketchbook. His early inspirations are his dad’s drawings, and also painters like Picasso, Diego Rivera and Expressionists like Max Beckmann, who is a noticeable influence in his figurative work. He uses the human figure, especially the face, to convey emotions and ideas, but the state of the world, war and other issues, often provide a subtext for many of his paintings. "Painting is my language, so it’s really hard to put into words. I let the work tell the story. My street work and gallery work are two different things. Outdoors, I’m freer. I paint fast and don’t have time to reconsider. I go into a kind of meditative state where I just paint as fast as I can. I want to finish it quick and get out of there. Indoors, it is the opposite. I take my time and make a million changes till I feel I get it right. I like abstract painting and design. It is a way to try something new without abandoning the character. I want to play with color, shape and composition, but still hold on to my themes.”