Nocturne: Curving Motion

Provenance:
Private Collection, Calgary
Notes:
Painter Tom Hopkins was born in Prince Edward Island and died in 2011 in Montreal, where he had lived and worked for most of his adult career. Hopkins's work is grounded in landscape and still life - yet decidedly modernist in style. His floating, almost surreal images are painted with brush and knife, and show a keen understanding of how light, colour and surface work together to produce compelling, luminous and rather enigmatic images. His landscapes are often mysterious, heavily glazed and suffused with light, recalling the chiaroscuro technique of Renaissance painters; and he used allegorical themes and references to the classical art world to further underscore the link that all modern art has with the past. As a teacher of painting technique at McGill University, and an alumnus of Concordia University, where he was also on the Fine Arts Faculty, he had a passionate interest in traditional painting techniques, and taught courses and workshops in materials and methods in both Canada and the United States.