New Series: Mountain Studies - New Paintings by M.L.Holton

I've been thinking a lot about mountains lately, as a natural 'form': how they tower above us, yet draw their vitality from below (like volcanoes, or mountain ridges that are the result of massive shifting geo-plates).

Mountain Study - HOPE - by M.L.Holton / acrylic on board / FOR SALE

Humans engage with these 'forms' in a variety of different emotional ways, either with veneration (appealing to hope and lofty sentiments of aspiring majesty etc,) or with fear (of a greater unknown, an object forbidding and insurmountable, of threatening power etc.)

I want and need to explore this further ...

I'll be drawing on my past experiences of time spent in & around the 'new' mountains of British Columbia and Alberta, first as a teen and then as an older woman. And I'll be considering too the 'older' mountains of Quebec & Ontario, those old rollers who lack the sharp edges of the West. I grow up and around the ancient strata of the Niagara Escarpment of Ontario ...

Mountains BECKON ... they draw us to them.

Mountain Study - Prospecting - by M.L.Holton / acrylic on board - FOR SALE

My preferred tool for this exploration is a trowel, or painter's spatula - with a very sharp flat edge to 'carve' and 'excavate'  paint. Inherent is this idea is the notion of 'prospecting' - or hunting - for minerals, gold, or food and water - hunting for nourishment - literal and metaphysical ...

(If interested in the above works, let me know.
For now, I'm not framing anything.)

UPDATE, March 27th. 
Have finished the triptych - with a gold leaf 'vein' running through all 3 boards.
I will be framing only the centre board ... 

Triptych - Mountain Core - Acrylic with gold leaf, by M.L.Holton, 2017

Centre panel - Triptych - Mountain Core, by Canadian painter, M.L.Holton

A Plug for Two Pals: Charles Pachter in Whistler, & 'Big John' in Hong Kong

The Olympics will soon be upon us.  For those of you who are making the trek, please do stop in on my pal Charles Pachter's 'Olympian' exhibition at the www. mountaingalleries.com in Whistler, opening February 12th.  Charles is CLEARLY Canada's Primary PoP Art iconoclast.  His range, his talent, is eclectic, diverse and always wittyly thought-provoking . Ain't nothing like him nowhere ... Go see, wave that flag! For a taste of his iconographic 'moose' works, link 'here'....

For more to see & do in Whistler during the festivities, click here. Don't miss the inaugural Whistler-Blackcomb Peak to Peak Gondola ride, sure to be a ski/snowboard and Olympic crowd pleaser.

If the Olympics aren't on your roster and you find you are spending a Thursday night in Hong Kong, please do drop in on another pal -  'Big John'.  He's holding the floor from six to midnight at the 'Tantra Bar & Lounge'. An investment banker by day, he lets it rip with finger-tripping dexterity and raspy vocals at night. Not to be missed.  

Tell him 'Lindsay' sent ya ...

Oils by Margaret Lindsay Holton - PART II. The use of 'colour' ...

Summer Breeze No.2

Cootes Paradise

Bailey's Brow, Lake Ontario

Fox Bay, Georgian Bay (SOLD)

Hot Rocks, Georgian Bay

Moose Meet
(inspired by Frederick Remington)

End of an Era: Gus & The Blue Spruce

A Paint Poem: To Lawren Harris

Mountsberg, Ontario

North Shore, Lake Superior

Global Warming, Nunavut

NB: If you are interested in any of these items,
contact the artist & mention the title of the work...

Hecate Strait thru a Porthole, British Columbia